First survey of its kind reveals children’s concerns about the Coronavirus outbreak, with 58% fearful of family members falling ill and 1 in 4 worried about food shortages.
Families are under acute financial pressure, with half worried about food supplies, 17% having to reduce working hours and 12% forced to take unpaid leave so they can manage childcare.
Research comes as Save the Children launches The Coronavirus Appeal to support families affected by Covid-19
As UK households end a second week of living in lockdown, new research from Save the Children finds children’s mental health and wellbeing has become a grave concern for parents.
More than half of parents (56%) are worried about their child’s mental health at a time when schools are closed and contact with friends and family is restricted as a result of social distancing.
In the first poll of its kind, children aged six to 18 said they were most concerned about a family member becoming sick (58%), with their other main worries including food running out (25%), not being able to see friends (46%) and keeping up with school work (20%). A fifth (20%) of children were also worried about their future now the schools have been shut indefinitely.
An overwhelming 85% of the children surveyed said they were upset about not seeing friends and relatives for the foreseeable future due to the unfolding Coronavirus outbreak.
The poll paints a vivid picture of families living under acute financial pressure. Asked about the biggest practical concerns that came with looking after their families, parents said ensuring they have food supplies (48%), helping children with schoolwork (44%) and money (38%) were the main worries. Other issues included job security (20%) and explaining the situation to their child (19%).
School closures mean parents have found themselves balancing caring for their children, working from home and being a teacher. A quarter (25%) are juggling working from home with childcare duties, while 17% have reduced their working hours to take care of their children. A further 12% of parents have been forced to take unpaid leave to look after their kids, while 1 in 10 have had to leave their jobs completely.
The survey comes as Save the Children launches a fundraising appeal for vulnerable children affected by Coronavirus, as well as a series of initiatives throughout the UK to support those children most in need during this unprecedented time of social and economic upheaval.
The children’s charity announced a new emergency grants programme in the UK to respond to the Covid-19 crisis, which aims to reach thousands of struggling families who are feeling the economic effects of the unfolding situation most acutely.
The programme will make sure families have access to early learning resources, as well as goods like tables and beds, to help build home environments in which children can continue learn and thrive. The programme will also support vulnerable families with gifts in kind and food vouchers, to help them make ends meet.
The charity has also set up a free, online resource hub, The Den, which will provide caregivers with a range of creative resources and activities. Featuring some of the UK’s best-loved celebrities and brands, The Den has been made hand in hand with Save the Children’s early learning experts, who have used their knowledge of what works for children at different ages and stages. Resources available will include ideas for keeping children calm and connected, creative play, fitness and food activities, and a corona-free zone including stories of happiness and hope from children across the world.
Deb Barry, Senior Humanitarian and Leadership Advisor at Save the Children says: “Throughout this challenging time, we’re here to support families by focusing on keeping children safe and healthy, and making sure they can keep learning, no matter what.
“Even before the coronavirus outbreak, four million children lived in poverty in the UK. We can’t let that number rise. Through our emergency programming we will provide those who need it most with essential food vouchers and cash grants to ensure that as many children as possible will be kept out of poverty during these unprecedented times.
“Save the Children has helped children survive and thrive in times of crisis for the past 100 years. Now, we’re calling on the generous British public to donate to our emergency appeal, and help us support children in the UK and around the world who are hardest hit by Coronavirus. Together, we’ll help families through this.”
For further information and to donate to Save the Children’s Coronavirus Appeal please visit: www.savethechildren.org.uk
Older respondents were less likely to show increased anxiety or depressive symptoms.
The study suggested that they were more likely to trust their neighbours and feel they belonged in their neighbourhood.
By contrast, younger people and those with children were more likely to show higher rates of anxiety or depressive symptoms.
That was also the case for those living in urban areas, with underlying health conditions or on lower incomes.
Participants said they trusted social media least to get accurate information about the coronavirus, while health professionals were most trusted.
About 30% admitted “increased purchasing” of tinned and dried foods and toilet roll.
‘Nation is well informed’
The study also suggested that the majority of people were following public health advice about how to avoid spreading the virus.
For instance, 95% of respondents said they were washing their hands with soap and water more often.
Over three-quarters (76%) said they believed that “social distancing” would help reduce the risk of infection.
However, relatively few respondents (17%) said they were wearing face masks.
“The overall picture that emerges thus far is of a nation that is well informed about Covid-19, taking appropriate health-related actions and psychologically resilient,” the authors concluded.
The academics involved in the study will contact the participants regularly to see how their experiences and mental health change as the pandemic progresses.
Prof Mark Shevlin, Prof Jamie Murphy and Dr Orla McBride from UU’s School of Psychology are the Northern Ireland-based academics involved.
Prof Elaine Fox of the University of Oxford said the survey was “timely” and that it showed there was a “good degree of resilience” in the population.
She said studies of this type were “very important to give us regular snap-shots of what is happening in the population as we move through this crisis”.
Dr Andreas Reif from the Goethe University Frankfurt, though, said that the study was of “limited use”.
“What we see is ‘depressive symptoms’, or worrying, but this is not ‘depression’ – depression usually does not come overnight,” he said.
A blind couple struggling to get online food deliveries because they are not considered vulnerable enough are calling on the government to ensure they have access to priority shopping.
Glen and Rowan Graham, from Devon, said they are scared because they cannot drive themselves to the supermarket.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is campaigning to class blind people as vulnerable.
The government said it was “working to identify others who may need support”.
The RNIB said the government’s category of vulnerable people currently only includes those at risk of developing coronavirus.
After receiving an “enormous amount” of inquiries by struggling people, the RNIB launched a petition, which the Grahams, both 49, are supporting.
The petition calls on the government to give the blind priority.
‘Frightening’
Ms Graham, who is self-isolating due to underlying health conditions, said the situation was “quite frightening” as blind people were being “blocked” from accessing essential goods.
“The trouble is a blind person can’t navigate a supermarket, they can’t go and find the items they want,” she said.
“Long term it’s quite frightening because how will people such as ourselves get shopping, how are you going to feed yourself, how are you going to feed your dogs, your cats? How are you going to do that?”
Mr Graham said isolation “tipped blind people into a vulnerable position or an extremely vulnerable position that they didn’t have before”.
The government said: “Up to 1.5 million people in England have been identified as being the most clinically vulnerable and at higher risk of severe illness if they contract coronavirus.”
It said in a statement it was working with retailers and volunteer groups “to identify others who may still need support in getting essential food supplies”.
A GP surgery has apologised after sending a letter asking patients with life-limiting illnesses to complete a “do not resuscitate” form.
A letter, from Llynfi Surgery, Maesteg, asks people to sign to ensure emergency services would not be called if their condition worsened due to coronavirus.
“We will not abandon you.. but we have to be frank and realistic,” it said.
One patient said it left her feeling “worthless”. Cwm Taf health board has issued an apology from the surgery.
The letter says in an “ideal situation” doctors would have had this conversation in person but had written to them due to fears they were carrying the virus and were asymptomatic.
“Completing a DNACPR will have several benefits,” the letter said.
“1/ your GP and more importantly your friends and family will know not to call 999. 2/ scarce ambulance resources can be targeted to the young and fit who have a greater chance.”
According to the Guardian newspaper, the letter was sent to a small number of patients and the staff at the surgery were apologising directly to those who had received it.
Patient Elizabeth John, who has vaginal cancer which spread to her lungs and is incurable, said the letter has caused her family “great distress”.
“With treatment, my cancer can be kept at bay, so I am not ready to dig my grave even though I am a burden on society,” she said.
“This letter made me feel worthless and I felt as if I had been sent a death warrant by the grim reaper.”
But the 61-year-old, who has had the condition for eight years, added: “If there is a choice of a 20-year-old having a ventilator and myself having a ventilator, of course I would give that ventilator to that 20-year-old.”
Cwm Taf said the advice was not a health board recommendation.
“The surgery have been made aware that the letter has caused upset to some of the patients who received it,” a statement said.
“This was not their intent and they apologise for any distress caused. Staff at the surgery are speaking to those patients who received the letter to apologise directly and answer any concerns they may have.”
Ogmore MP Chris Elmore, whose constituency covers Maesteg, said: “There is no getting around it, it is deeply concerning, the contents of this letter.”
“The Welsh Assembly Member for Ogmore, Huw Irranca-Davies, and myself were made aware of it on Monday evening. We were straight on to the health board to find out what had gone on.
“The board then investigated and it wasn’t a standard letter, so the health board spoke directly to the surgery.
“They have now asked the surgery to contact patients who received the letter to apologise and more importantly offer appropriate advice of what actually could happen in the circumstances of their particular health conditions.
“We are very concerned about the stress it has caused.”
Helena Herklots, the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, said she was “shocked” the letter was even written.
“This is shameful and unacceptable,” she added.
“Whilst difficult and painful decisions will need to be made in the weeks ahead, these must be taken on a case-by-case basis, through honest discussions between patients, doctors and their families that consider risks and benefits, as well as people’s own wishes.”
As a cancer patient, he underwent tests after developing a fever – and a few days later his oncologist rang to say he had tested positive for the virus.
The News at Six on BBC One presenter was first diagnosed with cancer in 2014 but revealed in 2017 that the disease had returned.
“In some ways, I think that those of us living with cancer are stronger because we kind of know what it is like to go into something where the outcomes are uncertain,” he told colleague Sophie Raworth.
She is concerned carers may spread the virus to the vulnerable, elderly people they look after, which will increase pressure on the NHS.
Ms Jones said: “At the moment we have two masks between a team of eight.
“They’re surgical, single-use masks so they’re not actually any good – and nobody is using them because nobody wants to be the one that used the mask. That’s all we have, two surgical masks.”
The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) said in an open letter to the work and pensions secretary, Thérèse Coffey, that changes introduced last week to raise the weekly rate of universal credit by £20 would not apply to those on legacy benefits.
Many claimants will not receive the increase, worth more than £1,000 a year, because they receive employment and support allowance (ESA), a disability unemployment benefit that pre-dates universal credit, the consortium said.
The DBC includes charities such as Leonard Cheshire Disability, MS Society, Parkinson’s UK, Mind, Macmillan Cancer Support, Age UK, Guide Dogs, Royal British Legion and Terrence Higgins Trust.
The charities have called for measures to protect vulnerable claimants from sudden falls in income, including a definitive commitment from ministers not to apply benefit sanctions, and a repayment holiday on advance loans from the Department for Work and Pensions to see new claimants through the five-week wait for a first universal credit payment.
The DBC warns that disabled people claiming tax credits who lose their jobs over the next few months will be worse off because they will not qualify for income protections promised when universal credit was introduced.
Transitional protection is a temporary top-up payment added to universal credit to offset any benefit losses when claimants are transferred from tax credits – but it is not payable when claimants move because of a change of circumstances, such as job loss.
“Disabled people in work and parents of disabled children stand to lose far more than most people if they lose transitional protection – sometimes amounting to thousands of pounds a year. This will make it even more difficult for them to recover from the economic shock of the next few months,” the letter says.
It also calls on ministers to protect the incomes of disabled people whose benefits are automatically reduced or suspended when they start an appeal against a benefit decision. About 90,000 people are currently awaiting an appeal.
Ella Abraham, the DBC’s campaigns co-chair, said: “These are unprecedented and extremely worrying times for so many people, across all of our organisations we are seeing the detrimental impact this is having on disabled and unwell people’s physical and mental health.
“It is therefore crucial the Department for Work and Pensions implement these changes with immediate effect to ensure people are not pushed further into poverty.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “This government is committed to ensuring that disabled people are supported during these unprecedented times.
“We have increased the standard universal credit allowance, suspended all face-to-face assessments for health- and disability-related benefits and removed the requirement for people to attend jobcentre appointments.
“We will respond fully to the issues raised by the Disability Benefits Consortium in due course.”
Awkward conversations happen at bath-time about how much they should tell their three-year-old daughter Scout when one of her mums is put in the High Risk category.
And, determined to bring people together from a distance, their neighbours find a way to lift everyone’s spirits while Kate reveals how to make stale doughnuts fresh again so you can comfort eat with food you might have thrown away – BBC public service at its best, you’re welcome.
Advocates for people with intellectual disabilities are concerned that those with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism and other such conditions will be denied access to lifesaving medical treatment as the COVID-19 outbreak spreads across the country.
Several disability advocacy organizations filed complaints this week with the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, asking the federal government to clarify provisions of the disaster preparedness plans for the states of Washington and Alabama.
The advocates say the plans discriminate against people with intellectual disabilities by deprioritizing this group in the event of rationing of medical care — specifically, access to ventilators, which are in high demand in treating COVID-19 cases. More than 7 million people in the U.S. have some form of cognitive disability.
Some state plans make clear that people with cognitive issues are a lower priority for lifesaving treatment. For instance, Alabama’s plan says that “persons with severe mental retardation, advanced dementia or severe traumatic brain injury may be poor candidates for ventilator support.” Another part says that “persons with severe or profound mental retardation, moderate to severe dementia, or catastrophic neurological complications such as persistent vegetative state are unlikely candidates for ventilator support.”
Other plans include vague provisions, which advocates fear will be interpreted to the detriment of the intellectually disabled community. For instance, Arizona’s emergency preparedness plan advises medical officials to “allocate resources to patients whose need is greater or whose prognosis is more likely to result in a positive outcome with limited resources.” Between a person with cognitive difficulties and a person without them, who decides whose needs come first?
Medical triage always forces hard decisions about who lives and dies. For instance, older people with shorter life expectancy or those with severe dementia are often deemed less deserving of scarce medical resources than younger, healthier individuals. The state plans make clear that the fate of those with intellectual disabilities is part of the wrenching debate.
HHS officials said they were opposed to rationing care for people with any kind of disability.
“Persons with disabilities should not be put at the end of the line for health services based on stereotypes or discrimination, especially during emergencies. Our civil rights laws protect the equal dignity of every human being from ruthless utilitarianism,” said Roger Severino, the director of the agency’s civil rights office.
“What we’re seeing here is a clash between disability rights law and ruthless utilitarian logic,” said Ari Ne’eman, a visiting scholar at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University. “What this is really about at the end of the day is whether our civil rights laws still apply in a pandemic. I think that’s a pretty core question as to who we are as a country.”
Advocates and families of those with intellectual disabilities say their community is especially vulnerable to the disease because many of those with significant impairments live in group homes or other congregate settings.
It can sometimes be difficult for people with intellectual disabilities to understand the pandemic and its demands, such as the need to wear masks and heightened protocols for social distancing and hand-washing.
The death of Emily Wallace, a 67-year-old with Down syndrome in a group home in Georgia, was an early warning sign of the dangers facing the community, advocates say.
Wallace was a woman of firsts. She and her husband, Richard, were the first couple with intellectual disabilities to marry in the state. They were the first to live independently in their own home in Albany, a small town in the southwestern part of the state. In mid-March, Emily was the first person with an intellectual disability in her community — and possibly one of the first in the nation — to be diagnosed with COVID-19.
She was taken to a local hospital where she died alone.
“Mrs. Wallace is once again the first, but this isn’t what we wanted to celebrate,” said Stacey Ramirez, state director for The Arc of Georgia, a nonprofit advocacy group that serves people with intellectual disabilities.
Emily and Richard Wallace were married for 18 years. A 1992 story in the Albany Herald depicted their life as happily domestic, mentioning that Richard hated to vacuum, while Emily didn’t like to dust, and that she did most of the cooking while he raked the leaves. They made payments on their home and both held down jobs. After Richard, who also had Down syndrome, died in 2018 at 65, Emily moved to a group home operated by The Albany Arc.
After a caregiver apparently brought the coronavirus into the home, Wallace fell ill. So did another resident, who was hospitalized.
Emily Wallace had a do not resuscitate order, so a ventilator would not have been an issue even if care were being rationed, said DeAnna Julian, executive director of The Albany Arc.
But as more people are getting sick, Julian said she worries that not enough testing for the virus is being done in Albany. She’s seeing individuals — both with and without intellectual disabilities — who appear to have mild symptoms of COVID-19.
“They’re just turning them around and sending them home, they’re putting them on” antibiotics, she said. “We live here in southwest Georgia where right now, all the cars are covered in yellow pollen and everyone has some kind of seasonal allergies. … Is it just your springtime cold or is it COVID-19?”
Julian doesn’t have masks, gloves or other safety equipment. She doesn’t have enough staff.
“It’s a difficult and critical situation here,” she said.
But no, Julian said, she didn’t see Wallace or the other group home resident receive treatment any different than anyone else. She said she wouldn’t stand for it.
“I’d take it all the way to the top, to the governor! They have every right to be treated like human beings,” Julian said.
With the Americans with Disabilities Act celebrating its 30th birthday this year, activists are questioning whether policymaking has come far enough in what some consider to be the final battle in the fight for civil rights.
In a March 18 letter to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, the Survival Coalition, a group of advocacy organizations, wrote, “‘Quality of life’ has long been a pretext for denying treatment, including life-sustaining treatment, to vulnerable populations, particularly people with intellectual disabilities.”
Michael Bérubé and his wife, Janet, live in State College, Pennsylvania, with their son Jamie, who is 28 and has Down syndrome. Bérubé, a professor of literature at Pennsylvania State University and the author, most recently, of the book “Life as Jamie Knows It,” studies disability. He was not surprised to learn about state rationing plans that single out people with intellectual disabilities and other cognitive conditions.
“It would be a very rare person who sees a person with Down syndrome as innately as valuable and as able to contribute to society as anybody else,” Bérubé said.
Pennsylvania is among those states now scrambling to write up guidelines to determine who will have access to ventilators in case of medical rationing, according to media reports.
“In two weeks, when the resources get truly stressed out, we’ll see how much of this draconian stuff goes into practice,” he said.
A sign language teacher has started telling stories on Facebook to entertain deaf children during the coronavirus pandemic.
Marie Biswell, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, usually runs group sessions with youngsters but has had to postpone them because of social distancing rules.
After her signed version of the Gruffalo was shared dozens of times in 24 hours, she decided to take requests for more stories.
She said: “I was, sort of, getting a bit upset because everything’s happening around the world, and I wanted to just do my part to give somebody a smile during these times.”
“One of the things that people seem to be struggling with is that feeling of powerlessness where they can’t do anything.
“I’m lucky to have the skill set to help fight what is going on and that is a positive that I’m taking.
“Obviously table tennis has completely taken a back seat now, but it will always be there for me, so I’ll keep it in mind for when this blows over.
“But for now, we just need to focus on making sure everyone stays healthy and looking after each other.”
Daybell, from Sheffield, was born with Poland’s Syndrome which affects the chest muscles on one side of his body.
He represented GB at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and also won a silver medal for England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
He was coming to the end of his foundation year at the Whittington, but was asked to come on to a full-time rota from this week.
“I will be a medical senior house officer managing Covid-19 patients,” he explained.
“People come to hospital if they have the coronavirus and need support like oxygen, and if they are well enough to leave they get sent home. Every day they open up another ward to be a coronavirus ward and most wards are filling up by the day.”
The news that the Tokyo Paralympics will be postponed until 2021 is disappointing for Daybell’s sporting dreams, but he knows there are bigger things to deal with.
“As an athlete I can appreciate the difficulties that other athletes are going through now,” he said.
“A year is a long time in sport – especially Paralympic sport with the athletes who have deteriorating conditions and who’s to say where they will be in a year’s time?
“All the athletes have been gearing themselves up for this year and there is a lot of stress and high pressure involved and for all that to just dissipate is very difficult.
“But this is serious and we have to come together now with a sense of community – be vigilant, be strong and stay safe.”
At a time like this we all need to pull together and protect everyone in our society says GMB Union
Older, younger disabled and BAME workers are the hardest hit by Government inaction over statutory sick pay and self-employed support during the Coronavirus crisis, GMB research shows.
In the absence of an official equality impact assessment, GMB has used official data to show the groups current policies are having a particular and detrimental effect [1]
GMB Union says the figures are a stark reminder of why the Government must announce support for self-employed workers and increase statutory sick pay to a level people can live on.
GMB research shows:
AGE
Self-employed workers are significantly more likely to be older. 9.5 per cent of self-employed workers are aged 65 or older,
Older and younger workers are much more likely to be reliant on SSP. 46 per cent of workers aged below 24 and above 65 are entitled to SSP only.
DISABILITY
15 per cent of self-employed workers identified as disabled compared to 13.5 per cent of employees.
37 per cent of disabled workers are reliant on SSP
RACE
A quarter of workers who gave their ethnicity as Pakistani were self-employed, compared to 15 per cent of white workers.
Workers who identified as mixed race (40 per cent reliant on SSP) and black (35 per cent reliant on SSP) are more likely to be entitled only to SSP than white workers
SEX
Women are more likely to be reliant on SSP (at 35 per cent) than men (at 28 per cent)
Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary, said:
“It can’t be right that the incomes of some the most vulnerable workers are hardest hit during the coronavirus crisis.
“At a time like this we all need to pull together – that means Government action to provide make sure self-employed workers can make ends meet and making sure sick pay is at a level people can live on.
“The Chancellor must urgently give self-employed workers the same protection he’s rightly offered to other workers. He must also increase statutory sick pay to an amount that will allow people to get by without having to put their bills and shopping on credit cards. Ministers know it’s impossible to live on that amount yet it’s what many people – including key workers – are being asked to do
“Not only is it the right thing to do, they are obliged to do so under their public sector equality duty.”
In the second episode of Cabin Fever. As 1.5m people wait to receive letters classing them as High Risk in the fight against coronavirus we find out if Octavia made it safely to Somerset after her care package collapsed in London when it became impossible for her PAs to travel through the city.
Bryony Hopkins is in a great place with her Crohn’s disease and raring to go, but the new drugs she’s on which make her feel better, put her squarely in the High Risk category and she must shield for 12 weeks.
And screenwriter and mental health first aider John Servante says he and some friends diagnosed with Chronic Anxiety pre-pandemic are feeling distinctly average, as more and more people open up about the impact Covid-19 and isolation are having on their mental health.
Disability rights groups have warned that safeguards could be sacrificed as part of new emergency powers.
They are particularly concerned what will happen when carers either fall ill or need to go into-self-isolation.
Baroness Grey-Thompson said she was worried that disabled people “might be seen as expendable”.
MPs approved sweeping new powers for the government to deal with the outbreak on Tuesday. The bill is expected to become law on Wednesday after passing through the House of Lords.
The legislation will allow councils to prioritise who and what type of needs it will meet, rather than being required to meet all eligible assessed needs as is currently the case.
The government says this will help adult social services cope with “surging demand and reduced capacity” due to anticipated widespread illness among patients and staff.
But campaigners have urged ministers to rethink the plans, saying it “cannot be right” that any disabled person is left “without the right to assessment and support”.
A coalition of leading charities is also calling for a rethink of plans to allow people to be detained under the Mental Health Act on the authorisation of just one rather than two doctors.
In a letter to ministers, they said relying on the judgement of one individual on issues of such magnitude was “neither reasonable nor proportionate”.
Paralympian and crossbench peer Baroness Grey-Thompson said many disabled people were very worried by the bill, with concerns it could lead to the loss of rights and crucial social care support.
“Like many others, I have huge sympathy for what the government are trying to do right now, but a bill of this magnitude will be life-changing for disabled people.”
“This is a health and social care obliteration bill by a different name.”
And her fellow crossbench peer, Baroness Campbell, a former commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said disabled people “must not be invisible in the survival planning process”.
‘I still need a lot of care’
Martyn Sibley is self-isolating at home. Like many disabled people, Martyn has decided to do all he can to avoid unnecessary contact with others.
But he still needs help.
Martyn employs a team of assistants directly to help him, and that comes with its own concerns,
“Every day, I still need a lot of care and support with getting out of bed, getting dressed, having a bath, and daily living tasks around the house.
“If any of the care team were to fall ill with the virus, particularly my overnight support I don’t know what that would mean for me.”
Baroness Campbell of Surbiton has raised the issue with the Department of Health and Social Care. She says some disabled people are not attached to any agencies.
“We are on our own,” she said. “We are employers, and we have to put in place our own safety mechanism. If you are on a ventilator – and there are lots of us – that takes two months of training, so what’s going to happen?”
Disabilities Rights Lawyer Chris Fry said: “What is critical is what is life-saving, but for many people, there are all sorts of other needs that might be considered minor or moderate now, but might not be in the future and there’s nothing in this bill that allows for any assessment of that.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said that it “recognises the concern among personal assistants and those receiving their support”. It said it will do “everything it can to help ensure local authorities continue to provide care.”
Ministers insist that the emergency provisions in the bill will be time limited.
Coronavirus has made enforced separation a universal experience, but there are additional and far-reaching challenges for learning disabled people and their families.
I cannot visit my youngest sister, Raana, who has fragile X syndrome and lives in supported housing in Hampshire. My family has no idea when we will next see her.
Social distancing, self-isolation and a lockdown for the over-70s will have a seismic impact on Raana (our parents are in their 70s, our father has a lung condition). My sister’s social contact is now limited to support workers paid to care for her and her learning disabled housemates. She uses text messaging but dislikes phone calls and writing letters.
The past week has seen thousands joining community efforts to help older neighbours. We need similar attention on the UK’s 1.5 million learning disabled people. This is not because my sister’s disability makes her “vulnerable”, but because she is already among society’s most segregated people. The health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities are well documented, and research suggests learning disabled people are seven times as likely as their non-disabled peers to be lonely.
“It’s all the uncertainty that’s difficult … with staying away [if you’re a relative]. The problem is that you isolate people, and loneliness is a killer,” says Gary Bourlet, who has learning disabilities and is co-founder of charity Learning Disability England.
Raana thrives on consistency and routine, including dance classes, baking workshops and weekly shopping. Yet coronavirus means services are closing and people’s movements are restricted. Online equivalents are not the same and do not always appeal if you have communication difficulties. What will happen if her trusted support staff fall ill or she has to self-isolate? What if she needs help with personal care?
While necessary, the coronavirus bill has potentially devastating implications for people like Raana. Support may be restricted to meeting essential needs, and emergency volunteers could replace care staff. This raises concerns about safeguarding and care quality, and, as families, campaigners and care providers warn, the basic right to support may vanish.
Learning Disability England has written to the health secretary, Matt Hancock, calling for the bill to be amended “to make sure the rights and entitlements of all disabled adults and children are not undermined”.
Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, warns social care might temporarily become “purely functional”, instead of “support focused on outcomes that enables people to be healthy and maximises their choice and wellbeing”. It is clear that radical, short-term changes will have lasting negative repercussions.
Given that people with learning disabilities get poorer care and die earlier than those without, what will happen if Raana herself falls ill? There have been concerns that critical care guidelines issued by the National Centre for Clinical Excellence (Nice) during Covid-19 might effectively make it harder for learning disabled people to get intensive care. Barrister and disability rights specialist, Steve Broach, has warned the guidance must be clarified.
Even though my family admires and trusts my sister’s support staff, it is still unsettling to suddenly be physically distant. Clare Kassa, chief executive of the charity Sibs, which supports siblings of disabled people, and of which I am a trustee, says: “Siblings fill in so many gaps for services – like outings, breaks, family occasions. But also the more subtle ones like vigilance, keeping an eye, safeguarding. When you can’t be there, what happens? How do we siblings keep our brothers and sisters safe in such unprecedented times?”
We are feeling our way as the current crisis puts further pressure on an already fragile support system and exacerbates the marginalisation experienced by people like Raana.
Communicating clearly to my sister what the virus is is vital. Her support provider has been doing this and has protective equipment in place like masks and gloves as part of its contingency plan. Raana has been texting me “Hope all better soon” and asking about the kids, so she knows something is up.
Individual providers are creating their own guidelines on how to explain to a person with learning disabilities the importance of washing their hands – for example, using picture stories. Many easy-read and accessible resources have been produced in the past week by a variety of organisations.
As a family, we are redoubling our efforts to stay in touch, by posting Raana more notes or cards, for as long as the mail service is reliable. My sister turns 31 in June and we always makes a big fuss of her birthday, with 10 of us gathering to celebrate, including the nephews and niece she dotes on. That is highly unlikely this year, which is distressing for us all.
This week, Raana’s support workers are helping her to try out video calls. I hope it works, as this might just help us ride out what is going to be a long, fearful and lonely time not just for Raana, but for her loving family too.
• Saba Salman is a journalist specialising in learning disabilities and editor of the Made Possible, a forthcoming book of essays written by learning disabled people
The government has announced that there will be no reviews or reassessments of benefits for three months from today, Tuesday 24 March. Awards of PIP which are due to end will be extended.
In a statement yesterday, the DWP announced that:
“We are automatically extending all awards and reassessments for health and disability benefits to provide that reassurance to those in receipt of them. “
The announcement covers all benefits, including:
Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
Universal Credit (UC)
Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
Attendance Allowance (AA)
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB).
Where an assessment has already taken place for PIP, the decision making process will continue.
If an assessment has been scheduled, the assessment provider should contact you to explain whether a paper or telephone assessment will take place.
Where awards of benefits are due to expire, the DWP will be extending end-dates so that your award continues at its current rate.
The DWP have said that “if people experience a change in their needs they are still encouraged to contact the Department to ensure they are receiving the correct level of support.”
From Thursday 19 March, existing claimants do not have to attend jobcentre appointments for three months.
Join Kate Monaghan as she navigates the emotional and practical struggles of home isolation in Yorkshire, during the coronavirus pandemic.
She has Elhers Danlos syndrome whilst her wife Holly is on immunity suppressants due to having had a kidney transplant – they are very anxious that they don’t get infected. The pair are also desperately trying to keep their three year old daughter Scout entertained!
With brutal honesty Kate shares her most personal and intimate thoughts whilst quarantined from the world.
I am one of an unknown number of people unable to leave their home for much or all of the time; I live with a number of Chronic conditions all of which mean I function on a High dose of Medication.
This is a person post outlining the problems I, along with doubtless many many others, are facing during the Corvid19 Crisis.
Before I begin I do want to say how very pleased I am to see self employed people and those who’s jobs are at risk, supported £ during this time.
However, I’m also Very Concerned for the number of #Sick & #Disabled people Surviving on #ESA, and maybe #PIP. Firstly lets look at Food & Household Essentials; how the Heck are we supposed to manage the Increase in aforementioned goods AND How are we Even supposed to Access the #Essentials??
The Senior President of Tribunals has issued new directions today allowing appeals to be decided on the papers rather than with a full hearing that the parties attend in person. Judges can also decide to hear a case without wing members if they consider it would be in the interests of justice to do so.
The new rules allow judges to ‘triage’ appeals and make a provisional decision based just on the papers, where they consider a successful outcome for the claimant is highly likely.
Given the current success rates for PIP and ESA appeals of over 75%, this may be the vast majority of cases. Although it is often the testimony of the claimant on the day that makes the difference and this will clearly not be available at a paper hearing.
Once a provisional decision is made both the claimant and the DWP will be asked if they agree with that decision.
If they do, it will become a final decision.
If either the claimant or the DWP are not happy they can still insist that the case goes to a full hearing.
There is likely to be huge pressure on the DWP to accept provisional judgements to prevent gridlock in the tribunal system.
Where a hearing is required, wherever possible it will be done ‘remotely’. This may mean by video link or telephone conferencing. There are no details about this in the practice direction.
In a second practice direction, the President has stated that full-time tribunal judges can decide to hear a case alone, or with a smaller panel then normally required, where it would ordinarily be heard by a two or a three person panel.
The judge can make this decision if they think that the case could not proceed, or would be subject to unreasonable delay, if a full panel had to hear it.
The judge can choose to get advice from say a medical member even if that panel member is not going to be at the hearing. In this case the advice must be disclosed to the claimant and to the DWP.
All the new rules apply to first tier and upper tribunals.
The effect of the changes should be to ensure that hearings do not grind to a halt during the coronavirus outbreak. However, it will be vital that claimants understand their right to refuse to accept a provisional tribunal judgement if they are unhappy with it.
We’ve all heard the information that coronavirus can be easily managed unless “you are vulnerable and have an underlying health condition” – but what if you ARE one of those people?
Among the doom and gloom of the pandemic is BBC Ouch! A bunch of journalists who will keep it real.
Turns out you may have one-up on the general population if you’re disabled – you might be used to self-isolating, cutting back on social occasions and working from home. Maybe this is really your time to show the world the way.
Emma Tracy is in Scotland and has blind-person concerns about relying on touch so much to get around, Octavia Woodward has SMA with only 25% lung capacity and is about to flee to Somerset because her care-package has gone haywire, and fresh from receiving a food delivery is Natasha Lipman who’s a-ok and totally used to working from home 99% of the time.
Oh and there’s Beth Rose, our token non-disabled. The least we can do is humour her worries about a touch of isolation and bring her around to our way of thinking.
It comes as Sainsbury’s said it would allocate specific hours for vulnerable and elderly patients to do their shopping and prioritise delivery slots for them.
People with disabilities have contacted the Guardian to say they are not able to get their supermarket food deliveries due to panic buying and stockpiling of goods, which has increased demand on supermarkets amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
A number of people have also struggled to get vital medical supplies, with a woman who has muscular dystrophy unable to find any non-latex gloves for suctioning her airway. She had to pay £70 to get them from Amazon.
Another woman with a systemic neuro-immune condition said all the online supermarket delivery slots were booked up to April, while another individual who contacted Sainsbury’s to complain says she was asked why they should prioritise disabled people.
The national disability charity Scope said about a quarter of calls to its helpline have been about coronavirus, but almost all calls have mentioned it in some capacity.
Ceri Smith, head of policy and campaigns at Scope, said: “This is a difficult time for lots of different reasons, some of which disproportionately affect disabled people.
“The social care system is already stretched and under severe pressure. Disabled people who rely on this support are deeply worried about a shortage of carers due to illness, and the impact self-isolation will have on their ability to do the basics in life.
“Many disabled people are concerned about panic buying leading to a lack of essential supplies and a scarcity of supermarket home delivery slots. The situation is changing fast and it’s important that the government take disabled people’s concerns seriously.”
Ed Holloway, director of services at the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society, said: “Calls to our free MS helpline have more than doubled, and without question the majority are coronavirus-related.”
Tony Phippar tweeted Sainsbury’s to say his wife, Helen, always gets her groceries delivered due to disabilities and cannot shop in the store. She claimed the company’s response over the phone was: “Why should we prioritise disabled people?”
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said the supermarket had got in touch with Helen to apologise for her experience, which did not reflect the standard of service it works hard to meet. Sainsbury’s said: “We are an inclusive retailer and committed to helping our elderly, vulnerable and disabled customers.”
The supermarket said that as of 23 March it will prioritise delivery slots for those over 70 and those with disabilities, adding it would contact those customers in the coming days.
Joanne Oliver, 59, is housebound with a systemic neuro-immune condition and has been off work sick for more than a year. She said: “I have been having Sainsbury’s deliveries for around a year and have paid for a delivery pass. I cannot get a delivery slot up to 6 April and none are released up to that date either.
“If the stores cannot offer this service, the government should step in. Imagine if you are ill and live alone … You’ve nowhere to turn to. People will be starving to death in their own homes if this isn’t resolved soon, not to mention the effect the stress of worrying about getting food, etc will have on people with already poor mental health.”
Andrew Jukes, who is HIV positive and has other medical issues as well as mobility issues, said: “Delivery slots in central London are a complete nightmare. The closest one we could get is two and a halfweeks away. Trying to get things that we need like toilet rolls, hand sanitiser, soap and basic food items is also a complete nightmare, my local shop is a Waitrose and they are refusing to ration stuff, and so basically everything is gone at 9am. Unfortunately there is always a really large queue and as I have limited mobility there is no way I can actually join it.”
Other disabled people have reported struggling to get key items such as wet wipes and non-latex gloves. Emma Vogelmann said: “My carers wear them when they suction my trachea. The catheter goes into my airway, so they have to wear them. I usually get them at my pharmacy but they were out and couldn’t get any ordered.” In the end, she had to go on Amazon and buy some for £70 as the procedure is life-threatening without the gloves. “I could die in four minutes. My airway could get completely blocked and I could stop breathing.”
Catherine Hale in London, who has ME and her partner has severe asthma, said she is self-isolating but has children still going to school. “There’s a scandalous absence of face masks, which are the only protection we can have if or when my kids get the virus. I’ve tried to buy some on eBay but told they’ve been expropriated by customs! This was completely predictable and avoidable. We are resorting to making our own out of kitchen roll and knicker elastic, following a video tutorial from Shanghai. That is literally my plan for self-preservation, knowing that if my partner needs critical care there probably won’t be beds, or respirators or staff left,” she said.
Evan Odell, a researcher from Disability Rights UK, said while panic buying was “an understandable if frustrating response to the coronavirus outbreak, it is not helpful and many people who are likely to be most impacted by Covid-19 are not able to stockpile basic necessities.
He added: “However, the high demand for grocery delivery simply reflects the millions of people who have been advised to self-isolate. Impromptu local groups and store managers implementing rationing of basic good are doing far more to help disabled people than the government has been. We urge people to be kind to one another and to be mindful of others’ needs.”
Posting on Facebook, the family of Craig Ruston said he had died at 6.20am on Monday after his chest infection was diagnosed as Covid-19.
They said that Ruston, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in June 2018, was “not ready to go”.
The post on his Me and my MND page on Tuesday, signed by his wife Sally and his “amazing girls”, added: “My amazing Craig passed away yesterday morning at 6.20am. We are truly heartbroken. His fight with MND was not ready to be over. At diagnosis in June 2018 he was given roughly two years to live. He was pushing that back. Craig was not ready to go.”
His family said that Ruston was taken ill on Tuesday last week, and spent six days in isolation. They added: “How dare that take Craig who was already facing this, the most vile and evil of diseases. Craig’s wish upon death was to give his brain to the Oxford Brain Bank. It was to be used specifically for MND research and Craig was so keen to do this. He’d give anything in the name of research. Sadly this can no longer happen. How dare this virus take this from Craig.”
His family said that Ruston was a “wonderfully kind and caring” person who welcomed everyone.
They said he was still doing “everything in his power” to raise awareness and fight against MND.
They added: “To those of you that knew Craig, before his MND diagnosis, after his diagnosis and to all that follow this his blog, I’m sure you knew or could tell what a wonderfully kind and caring person he was.
“He welcomed everyone. There were no airs and graces with Craig.
“He loved the world. He absorbed the world. He was one of the most intelligent people I know that would absorb information and could somehow explain just about anything.”
When sports broadcaster Dave Clark was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the same age as his father – 44 – he knew he couldn’t keep it a secret. His dad, Alan, had been so worried about the stigma around it at the time that he didn’t tell anyone and eventually took his own life.
Alan Clark, was a sales rep in Bradford when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a neurological disorder that attacks the area of the brain which controls movement. It was the 1980s and he was worried he would lose his job if he disclosed he had the disease.
He continued to work full-time to provide for his wife and two sons. Even when he turned up to meetings with hands that shook so much he was accused of being drunk, he still refused to reveal what was going on.
Alan’s son, Dave, a Sky Sports presenter, says: “He went to the doctors by himself, didn’t eat with the family because he was worried about his shakes. He didn’t tell anyone he had Parkinson’s, including me.
“It didn’t end well for my dad. He died when he was 52, took his own life.”
Unknown to Alan, his son had discovered this closely guarded secret as a teenager. Dave happened to watch a documentary, which explained the condition, while he was off sick from school.
It said Parkinson’s causes symptoms such as shaking and slowness of movement due to a reduction of dopamine-producing nerve cells in the brain. Dopamine helps transmit signals between nerve cells.
Dave says: “He was frightened to be labelled as disabled and lose his job. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up as a kid and his job was vital. The whole thing was very sad.”
Dave, a broadcaster for more than 30 years, has covered World Cups, Olympics and a plethora of other sports, more recently becoming synonymous with TV darts coverage.
But decades after his father’s death, he started to suspect something may be up.
Moments before a live television broadcast, his hand excessively shook so he couldn’t put on his tie and cufflinks. He hid in a cupboard to escape the producer who was shouting at him to hurry up. Dave managed to sort himself out with moments to spare.
Although Parkinson’s UK said it’s very rare for the condition to be passed on genetically, Dave suspected he may have the same illness as his father and visited a specialist.
But the tactless way his then-consultant delivered the diagnosis in 2011 still shocks him.
“He said: ‘Have you got a big mortgage? How many kids have you got? Sorry to say you’ve got Parkinson’s’.
“That was a lousy way of telling it, as if he thought he was God.”
Dave was devastated by the diagnosis, but determined to deal with it differently to his father and not keep it a secret.
“I walked away from the specialist, across Wimbledon Common, and tears were running down my cheeks. But the sun was shining and I thought, the sun’s going to shine for a bit longer yet.”
He allowed himself 24 hours to feel down about the news, although admits the first three months were hard to get through.
Dave and his wife Carolyn, a clinical psychologist decided to tell their sons, then aged seven and four, that their dad had the neurological condition as soon as questions arose, to make it a normal part of family life. Carolyn has since helped to write a guide on talking to children about Parkinson’s.
“We’ve been very open with the kids from day one because, again, just what happened with my dad, just keeping a secret. And I think it’s important that they knew about it.
“They know I’m getting worse and they know it’s very serious, but I’m just ‘Dad’.”
He says the way his children have accepted it makes him feel guilty about the way he viewed his own father when he turned up unannounced to his football games.
“I didn’t like to see him hunched up and looking shaky on the side of the pitch and I’m embarrassed by that reaction now.
“My kids don’t have a choice: I turn up for everything.”
He’s also conscious of the impact Parkinson’s can have on mental health and always plays music in the house, often Bruce Springsteen, to keep his spirits up.
There is a scientific reason behind that too. Parkinson’s can trigger depression due to a drop in levels of the chemical messenger linked to pleasure: dopamine.
Although Dave takes medication which simulates dopamine production for the brain, he estimates he is down to his last 10%.
“You’ve got to be careful because the dopamine rush that you get from the meds can cause addictions,” he explains. “I’ve got a slight addiction to guitars. If I’m not careful, I’d end up buying loads of guitars on eBay. I’ve got seven already, which is too many!”
Nine years on from his diagnosis, Dave continues to work in broadcasting, although he now picks and chooses what he takes on so he can focus on his health.
About 145,000 people have Parkinson’s in the UK, with that number predicted to grow as life expectancy increases.
Several high profile people have recently revealed they live with the progressive condition, for which there is currently no cure.
Ozzy Osbourne announced in January he had a “mild form” of Parkinson’s, comedian Billy Connolly made a documentary about it, and the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones has been charting his progress after a neurologist noticed his symptoms during a live broadcast and contacted the BBC.
Dave spends a lot of his time exercising, to keep his body and mind working. The former Capital Gold reporter has also undertaken several bigger physical challenges from walking the Dales Way to coast-to-coast, generating thousands of pounds for charity but says he “needs one big challenge to finish it off”.
That’s come in the form of an 18-day trek to Mount Everest base camp for Parkinson’s UK, which he will undertake in November. “I’ve always wanted to see Everest, and I thought ‘while I still can, I’ll do it’,” he explains.
Base camp is just short of 18,000ft (5,500m) where the air is thin so he’s unsure how his body will react to the atmosphere.
“Some people say altitude is good for Parkinson’s, some people say it’s bad. Michael J Fox went to meet the Dalai Lama and said he’d never felt as good.”
The expedition will add to an already wide and varied collection of memories.
One of Dave’s most poignant sporting moments came during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta with legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, arguably the most famous person to have had Parkinson’s.
“I was in the stadium and they didn’t know who was going to light the torch, and they passed it on through various superstars, and then Ali came out wearing a white tracksuit and his hand really badly shaking, he could hardly move.
“I was quite upset at the time because I thought about my dad back in the day. He lit the flame, it was just an amazing moment. It transcended any sporting occasion I’ve ever been to.”
While Dave’s final big challenge will involve Everest, he says it’s important to recognise that every person’s experience of the condition differs.
“People with Parkinson’s do amazing things. Walk coast-to-coast, or just walk down the shops if you’ve not walked down the shops for a while.
“That’s an amazing thing if you’re really struggling – keep going, keep fighting.”
Dave’s tips for living with Parkinson’s
Image copyrightLAWRENCE LUSTIG/PDC
Live in the now
Always have something in the diary that excites you
Play music in the house so you don’t get in that dark place
Get up, get out, get dressed – but get dressed before you get out!
Have the odd sofa day but don’t make a habit of it
“You get a very different kind of love; a love that’s not about physical beauty; it’s love beyond appearances,” says award-winning Indian photographer Niraj Gera.
In a recent photo series called Sacred Love, he tells the story of a blind couple in 13 photographs.
“I was shopping in Connaught Place [in Delhi] one day last July when I saw a beautiful couple. They were walking, holding hands, they were smiling and talking,” Mr Gera told the BBC.
The couple were being helped by a man as they walked towards the Connaught Place Metro station.
Mr Gera says he was intrigued: “I was seeing a blind couple for the first time.”
So he went up to them and offered to walk them to the station.
“On the way, we started chatting and I asked them if they were a couple and they said yes. So I asked them if they would like to share their story? And they said yes,” he says.
Sacred Love tells the story of Deepak Yadav and Arti Chaurasia, both 21, who met on Facebook.
Deepak says both their smartphones have an “accessibility app” that helps blind people navigate their devices. “Once you switch on the Talkback facility in the app, you get spoken feedback,” he says.
One day in June 2018, Deepak says Arti’s name popped up as a “suggestion” in his notifications.
“I thought we had a lot in common so I sent her a friend request,” he told the BBC.
Arti took two whole weeks to respond. “I didn’t know him so I was wondering who he was?” she said. But then she added him.
Soon they began exchanging messages, then they started exchanging stories and finally, they exchanged phone numbers.
“We spoke on the phone for the first time on 31 July,” says Deepak. “That call lasted 90 minutes,” adds Arti.
They started talking regularly, and one day, Arti asked him if he had a girlfriend. “He said, no, the slot is vacant,” she says laughing.
It didn’t take long for her to confess her love to him. It happened on 10 August.
“We were talking on the phone. I was sitting with a friend and she dared me to say ‘I love you’. So I did,” says Arti.
Deepak says he was stunned into silence for a minute. “I thought this was my line. How can she say it? I was silent for a few moments and then I said it back to her.”
Two months later, Deepak went to her hostel and the couple met for the first time.
Since then, Deepak and Arti have been meeting often, and they say their bond has grown stronger.
Deepak says so far he has managed to keep their love story secret from his family, who he describes as “rather conservative”.
“My father says stay away from love and romance now, there’ll be plenty of time for all that later. Concentrate on your studies and making a career now,” he says.
Arti says most of her family know about her relationship with Deepak, although her father doesn’t.
I ask them what would happen if their parents see the BBC report and find out about their relationship.
“We are hoping they would,” says Deepak.
“If they see that the press is appreciating our relationship, they would also think positively about us,” adds Arti.
The couple are now looking for jobs to secure their future together.
“We’ll get engaged as soon as one of us finds a job,” says Arti. “But I sometimes worry if we’ll get old by the time we find a job and settle down in marriage.”
A Japanese man has been sentenced to death for a stabbing rampage in 2016 which resulted in the death of 19 disabled people at a care home.
Satoshi Uematsu said people with disabilities who were unable to communicate well had no human rights, said broadcaster Kyodo.
The 30-year old had once worked in the care facility, located near Tokyo.
The case is one of Japan’s worst mass killings and has shocked people in a country where violent crime is rare.
In an earlier interview with Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, Uematsu had said there was “no point in living” for people with mental disabilities and that he “had to do it for the sake of society”.
The Yokohama District Court on Monday ordered him to death by hanging.
Uematsu previously said he did not plan to appeal against any verdict or sentence.
‘He abused marijuana’
During the trial earlier this year, the former employee of the Sagamihara care home did not dispute that he stabbed his victims.
But his defence team pleaded not guilty, citing their client’s mental state. They said he had been under the influence of drugs at the time.
“He abused marijuana and suffered from mental illness,” his lawyer said.
“He was in a condition in which either he had no capacity to take responsibility or such a capacity was significantly weakened.”
There were traces of marijuana found in his blood after the attack.
Prosecutors though insisted Uematsu was mentally competent and that the rampage was “inhumane” and left “no room for leniency”.
The attack has also raised the issue of how disabled people are treated in Japan.
The identities of most of those killed have not been revealed by their families, reportedly because they do not want to reveal they had a disabled relative.
Before the start of the court hearing, however, one mother whose 19-year old daughter was killed in the attack revealed that her first name was Miho.
“Even the most extreme penalty is light for you,” the mother said according to public broadcaster NHK. “I will never forgive you.”
“Please bring back my most precious daughter… you’re still alive. It’s not fair. It’s wrong. I demand capital punishment,” she added.
What happened during the attack?
On 26 July 2016, Mr Uematsu drove to the Tsukui Yamayuri-en care facility outside of Tokyo, armed with several knives.
He entered one of the buildings by breaking a window and began attacking sleeping residents one by one in their rooms, according to the prosecution.
His 19 victims were aged between 19 and 70, according to Japanese news agency Kyodo. Another 25 people were wounded, 20 of them seriously.
Soon after the attack, Mr Uematsu handed himself in at a police station.
The facility, set in extensive grounds, had about 150 residents at the time of the attack, according to local officials. Nine staff members were on duty at the time.
It later emerged that a few months before the attack Mr Uematsu had taken a letter to Japan’s parliament saying he would kill 470 severely disabled people if authorised.
“I want Japan to be a country where the disabled can be euthanised,” he said.
He was subsequently taken to hospital but released after two weeks. Since his arrest, he had shown no remorse.
In a joint message to parents, Belfast special school principals said their schools would close from Monday.
“This will allow principals to seek clear guidance from the Education Authority (EA) on the considerable health and safety issues concerning the well-being and vulnerability of children with special needs in relation to the COVID-19 virus,” it said.
BBC News NI was told by a representative of the principals that the closure would last “indefinitely” until direction came from the EA.
The schools affected are: Fleming Fulton school, Glenveagh Special School, Harberton School, Park School, Mitchell House, Greenwood, St Gerard’s, Clarawood, Cedar Lodge and Oakwood School.
All have pupils with special educational needs (SEN) which range from moderate to profound, including some with life-limiting conditions.
Voluntary closures
Meanwhile, a number of other schools in Northern Ireland have also decided to close in the short term.
Dean Maguirc College in Carrickmore in County Tyrone is to close until at least 30 March.
In a message to parents, the school governors said that their decision had been taken “to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.”
Other schools, including Lisneal College in Londonderry and St Joseph’s Grammar in Donaghmore have said they are closing to pupils on Monday for one day only.
The schools said that would allow staff to prepare online learning materials for pupils in the event of a longer closure.
A number of primary schools in north Belfast have also told parents they will close on Monday as they await further guidance and hygiene materials from the EA.
Many schools will then close as planned on Tuesday for St Patrick’s Day.
BBC News NI understands that the Department of Education plans to issue updated coronavirus guidance to schools on Monday.
Education Minister Peter Weir said on Sunday he would continue to be guided “by the science and professional health advice”.
He added: “The Department is continuing to work on the preparations for education moving ahead as well and is aiming to give more public health advice to schools tomorrow.
“In this critical time let us all keep calm heads to help save lives and try to move forward together.”
The DWP has hired market research firm Ipsos MORI to carry out a survey of PIP and universal credit claimants who have challenged a decision about their benefits. The DWP say the purpose of the survey is to help improve the service, but many will suspect it is an attempt to try to improve the reputation of a process that is regarded as deeply unfair.
A Benefits and Work member has received a letter from the DWP and Ipsos MORI headed:
DWP Claimant Service and Experience Survey – Mandatory Reconsideration 2020
The letter says that the DWP has asked Ipsos MORI ‘to help them understand the experience of people who have disagreed with a decision that has been made regarding their benefit claim and to help the Department improve the services they offer’
Claimants are being selected from a database held by the DWP containing all those who have disagreed with a decision that has been made regarding their PIP or UC claim since April 2019.
Rather than this being an opt-in survey, claimants who are contacted but who do not wish to take part in the survey have to opt out, by phoning or emailing Ipsos MORI or they will be contacted anyway.
Claimants are told they can have someone with them and they can stop the interview at any time if they wish to.
If any claimant decides to record their interview or takes notes, Benefits and Work would be fascinated to hear what questions are being asked.
A novel featuring a heroine who has Down’s syndrome has been praised for the way it portrays those living with the condition.
Joseph Elliott from Bristol wrote The Good Hawk after a football injury left him unable to work as Cook in the CBeebies programme Swashbuckle.
He said Agatha was influenced by young people he worked with as a teaching assistant at a special needs school.
Mr Elliott said he was “blown away” by the responses to the story.
Maya, 16, who has Down’s syndrome, read the book in two weeks and said it was “gripping”.
“I really liked Agatha and I think she is a good representation of someone who has Down’s syndrome, because she is brave and fierce,” she said.
“Other people may think she’s slow, but I know that Agatha won’t let people think too little of her.”
In the mythical world of the story there is no word for Agatha’s condition.
‘Mind-blowing’
“She doesn’t see herself as being ‘different’ to others – she is who she is, brave and bold, kind and impulsive, and she’s confident in her own abilities,” said Mr Elliott.
The Down’s Syndrome Association welcomed “the fact that although one of the main characters has Down’s syndrome, the novel is not ‘about’ Down’s syndrome”.
A spokesperson for the association said it allowed the reader “to enjoy the character for the funny, kind, strong 15-year-old girl that she is”.
“I’ve had parents of children with Down’s syndrome telling me how grateful they are to have this heroine,” said Mr Elliott.
“They’ve never read a book with a heroine with a disability and really, what are we teaching our kids if they can’t see themselves represented?
“It’s mind-blowing to have that support – that’s really the best thing, it’s wonderful.”
The Good Hawk is the first in the Shadow Skye trilogy.
Special arrangements will be in place for people in receipt of benefits who cannot attend reassessments or jobcentre appointments because they are required to stay at home or are infected by coronavirus.
• Claimants who cannot attend a reassessment for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit will continue to receive their payments while their assessment is rearranged.
• People who need to claim ESA or Universal Credit because of coronavirus will not be required to produce a Fit Note.
• When claimants tell us in good time that they are staying at home or that they have been diagnosed with coronavirus, they will not be sanctioned. We will review their conditionality requirements in their claimant commitment, to ensure they are reasonable.
• Claimants who are staying at home as a result of coronavirus will have their mandatory work search and work availability requirements removed to account for a period of sickness.
For people who need to make a new claim for financial support
We understand people who are required to stay at home or are infected by coronavirus may need financial support.
• Those affected by coronavirus will be able to apply for Universal Credit and can receive an advance without physically attending a jobcentre.
• The seven waiting days for Employment and Support Allowance for new claimants suffering from coronavirus or required to stay at home will not apply, so it will be payable from day one.
Employees and self-employed people
To make sure people in work can take the necessary time off to stay at home if they are suffering from coronavirus or to prevent its spread, changes have been made to Statutory Sick Pay and how Universal Credit supports self-employed claimants.
• People who cannot work due to coronavirus and are eligible for Statutory Sick Pay will get it from day one, rather than from the fourth day of their illness. We intend this measure to apply retrospectively from 13 March.
• Statutory Sick Pay will be payable to people who are staying at home on Government advice, not just those who are infected, this measure will apply from 13 March. Employers are urged to use their discretion about what evidence, if any, they ask for.
• If employees need to provide evidence to their employer that they need to stay at home due to coronavirus, they will be able to get it from NHS 111 Online instead of having to get a Fit Note from their doctor. This is currently under development and will be made available soon.
• Self-employed claimants on Universal Credit who are required to stay at home or are ill as a result of coronavirus will not have a Minimum Income Floor (an assumed level of income) applied for a period of time while affected.
Within the autism community we will face some unique challenges from the coronavirus outbreak. Some advise for parents below.
1. State the facts Only state clear objective facts about the virus. Don’t engage or let them hear speculation. They will struggle to separate ‘what ifs’ from what is really happening. Try to answer their questions without giving unnecessary details that may alarm them.
2. Food stocking Do I think we need to be stockpiling food? No. I honestly don’t. However! If you have an autistic child that will only eat specific things I do not think it will hurt to ensure you have a buffer of those foods. Don’t assume you can go and get specifically what your child will eat, at short notice.
3. Routine Schools around the world are starting to close, as well as parents working from home. I would be preparing to change to a school holiday routine at short notice. Explaining it as a bonus school holiday may take it away from being a grey area of no school but it’s not a holiday. If you live somewhere this is likely I would consider pre-empting a bonus holiday may be coming (this greatly depends on the child and how they deal with change).
4. Distance As an adult it is very hard to put distance between what is happening and myself. It’s everywhere online. But children can be protected from that a lot more. Try to put some distance in their mind to stop them thinking it is right outside their door. Keep them away from the news if possible.
5. Let them cope As autistics we are pretty good at finding our own ways to cope. Little man piled pillows outside his door to ‘stop the virus’. Will it in anyway help? No. Does it make him feel safe? Yes. Within reason let them cope how they need to.
This is stressful for us all and likely a lot of us are worried. Please remember the fact it is governments deciding, or our own stress, doesn’t change that the child is autistic. There is a lot of change. A lot of disruption. They are going to struggle. It being a global virus outbreak doesn’t stop their autistic needs.
I hope this has helped even a little bit. Any specific questions send me a message and I will gladly help.
Advice about how the coronavirus could affect pupils with complex needs has not been good enough, a Stormont committee has heard.
Principals said they were “very worried” about the impact but had received insufficient guidance.
An Education Authority (EA) official said they had raised the issue with the Public Health Agency (PHA).
Three special school heads were giving evidence to MLAs on Stormont’s education committee on Wednesday.
In response to a question from SDLP MLA Justin McNulty, Kim Scott, from the EA, said that the authority was “doing everything we can at the moment”.
“So up to this point the guidance that’s been issued to headmasters and principals has been look at the PHA website?” Mr McNulty replied.
“That has been what the PHA has advised the Department of Education to do,” Ms Scott said.
However, the principal of Sperrinview Special School in Dungannon, Paula Jordan, said guidance on coronavirus had been insufficient.
“Not with the complex medical needs of our children, as some of our children are life-limiting,” she continued.
“All of our principals are very worried about what’s going to happen.”
Ms Jordan claimed, for example, that one school had received conflicting advice about whether a staff member who had been in contact with someone with the virus should come to work.
“It should not be a principal’s call, this is a medical issue,” she said.
Classes in sheds
Sharon Tennant, principal of Sandelford Special School, expressed similar concerns.
“We have very complex children with very complex health needs, children with oxygen, children with heart and lung problems, life-limited children,” she said.
“We need really clear guidance on what to do.”
The principals also said that some special schools were holding classes in sheds and staffrooms due to increasing numbers of pupils.
The number of children in Northern Ireland’s 40 special schools has increased by almost 40% over the past decade.
There are currently 40 special schools in Northern Ireland with 6,174 pupils, an increase from 4,443 pupils in 2009-10.
Ms Jordan said some of her pupils were currently being taught in a former medical room.
“We have a class in our PE hall, which means I no longer have a PE hall so we can’t provide statutory PE at this time of year,” she said.
“We have a class in our staff room. which means that our staff are now having their tea in a corridor outside a toilet.
“We have a class in a medical room, other schools have classes in potting sheds.”
More schools needed?
In response, SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said children with special educational needs (SEN) had been “absolutely failed”.
“The children of today have been treated, or have ended up, as the collateral damage for the systemic failure of EA and the department in relation to their complex needs,” he said.
Sinn Féin MLA Karen Mullan said it was “scandalous” that some pupils were being left without PE facilities.
Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle said there was a “major problem”.
“Is the education authority or education system enrolling more pupils than our special schools can effectively accommodate?” he asked.
In response, Ms Jordan said more special schools were “probably” needed.
If you, or people you know, teach or treat, have a learning disability and are worried about the Coronavirus, the Downs Syndrome Assiciation and Mencap have published easy-read sections on their websites about it. They include a video for the Hand Washing Rap:
There is no evidence that disabled people who are otherwise healthy – and who don’t, for instance, have respiratory problems – are at greater risk of dying from, or with, coronavirus.
The Department for Work and Pensions has lost more employment tribunals for disability discrimination than any other employer in Britain since 2016.
BBC Panorama found the DWP lost 17 of 134 claims of discrimination against its own disabled workers from 2016-19.
And it paid out at least £950,000 in both tribunal payments and out-of-court settlements in that time.
The DWP said it was “shocked” by the data but was reviewing its processes to ensure all staff were treated fairly.
It is the government department that is responsible for supporting people with disabilities into employment.
Of its 80,000 members of staff, 11,000 identify as disabled.
Panorama analysed the publicly available data on the online Employment Tribunal decisions database up until December 2019.
It reveals that the DWP had more cases in total and more cases which it lost than any other employer.
A comparison with the five employers who had the largest number of disability discrimination cases also showed that the DWP had more cases and more tribunal defeats in proportion to its total number of employees.
Karen Jackson, a leading disability discrimination lawyer, said: “There is a horrible irony that the organisation that is designed to look after the more vulnerable members of our society is constantly falling foul of the Equality Act around disability.
“To me, that can only suggest that there is something quite fundamentally, systemically wrong within the culture of the organisation.”
‘Wholly inexcusable’
Barrie Caulcutt, 57, was awarded £26,000 after he took the DWP to an employment tribunal and a judge ruled he had been discriminated against because of his disability.
He worked in the finance department at the DWP for 30 years and suffers from a serious panic and anxiety disorder that can trigger life-threatening asthma attacks.
But he was not able to manage his condition after being moved into a different job role.
“I basically told them I couldn’t do the job I was doing, because of my disabilities. I provided evidence from my GP,” Mr Caulcutt said.
“Their own occupational health service told them that unless they moved me from the environment I was working in, it would be of detriment to my health.”
As part of his new role, Mr Caulcutt was told to attend a training session in a small room. He said said he could not attend because he suffered from panic attacks but was told he would be disciplined if he failed to show up.
Mr Caulcutt said that during the course he had an “overwhelming feeling” that he had to leave the room.
“I just collapsed to the floor. I realised then that it was an asthma attack. I’m not a religious person, but I was praying. I was praying. Please, God, don’t make me die. Don’t make me die now,” he said.
“And the next thing I was in the back of an ambulance and they were rushing me to hospital.”
Despite knowing Mr Caulcutt had been admitted to hospital, the next day his managers called him to ask where he was.
During the tribunal, the judge described his treatment as “wholly inexcusable”.
‘Dismissive’ and ‘nasty’
The DWP has lost 12.5% percent of its employment tribunal cases for disability between 2016 and 2019.
On average over this period 3% of disability discrimination claims were lost by employers.
One the biggest payouts made by the DWP for disability discrimination was awarded to former benefits worker, Charlotte.
Charlotte suffers from serious health problems, including depression, and was sacked by the DWP for taking too much sick leave.
She said her colleagues were often “dismissive” and “quite nasty” when discussing state benefits claimants and she felt they had the same attitude towards her.
“I think that me being disabled, I kind of felt like if I had time off, people thought I was lying or faking it or I wasn’t really ill, and that was kind of a culture,” she said.
At Charlotte’s employment tribunal, the judge found she had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against by the DWP.
From 2016 to 2019 the DWP paid out at least £953,315 to DWP employees with disabilities as a result of losing employment tribunals, or because they settled out of court.
Freedom of Information requests reveal that between April 2017 and June 2019 the department settled 45 claims out of court, at a cost of £713,000. The remaining £240,000 was awarded to people who had won their employment tribunals.
‘More we can do’
A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “We are shocked that, when presented in this way, the data shows us in this light.”
The department said it ensured staff had formal and informal routes to raise any concerns and that cases brought against it came from fewer than 2% of staff with disabilities – although it acknowledged the figure was “still too high”.
“Fair and respectful treatment is a right and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form,” the spokesperson said.
The DWP said it had improved how it managed absence and resolved complaints, as well as introducting 1,600 mental health first aiders, adding: “We know there is always more we can do.
“We have instigated a review of our processes and actions following tribunal cases, to ensure all our employees are treated fairly and with respect.”
Speaking to ITV’s Loose Women, the singer and former X Factor judge said she sustained nerve damage after a horse riding accident.
“I do suffer from Bell’s palsy… it can cause facial paralysis, it can cause swelling,” she explained.
“I think the first attack I had was after a serious horse-riding accident.
“I fractured my skull and it caused a lot of nerve damage.”
It is the first time the N-Dubz star, whose full name is Tulisa Contostavlos, has revealed the diagnosis.
“At any time, I have emergency steroids on me, and now luckily I know how to manage it, so the attacks don’t last as long,” she explained.
“There have actually been times when people have criticised me for the way I look and my face, not knowing I’m actually going through a Bell’s palsy attack.”
She added: “If you have steroids within a 72 hour period, it can last days instead of seven months, which happened to me the first time. I was hiding in the house.”
What is Bell’s palsy?
The most common facial palsy, it causes temporary weakness or paralysis of the muscles on one side of the face, with the symptoms varying from person to person.
The weakness on one side of the face can be described as either a partial palsy, a mild muscle weakness, or a complete palsy, which is no movement at all.
Bell’s palsy can also affect the eyelid and mouth, making them difficult to close and open.
It is not known exactly what causes Bell’s palsy but links have been made to viruses.
Symptoms can include a facial droop, pain in the inner ear, chronic pain, difficulty with eating and speaking, and the inability to close one eye.
Lucio Delgado, 23, was born blind and uses a cane to get around. He moved to the US from Mexico six years ago.
Mr Delgado said he was offered a large-print sentence to read, which he could not, being totally blind.
Mr Delgado, who is legally blind under Illinois state law, was told to get a doctor’s note to prove his condition.
“Over here I was going to get the education I couldn’t get in Mexico,” he told CBS News from his home on a farm in Pembroke Township, Illinois – about 70 miles (110km) south of Chicago.
After taking the test in May, he recently received a letter from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) informing him that he had been rejected.
“Unfortunately, you were unable to read a sentence in the English language,” the letter said. “Regrettably, you were unable to achieve a passing score on the reading portion of the naturalisation test.”
“I really wasn’t expecting not to be provided that very basic accommodation,” he told the Washington Post newspaper. “It was quite a shocker, honestly.”
“I was going to be someone. I was going to make my family here and there proud,” he told CBS.
He was told during the test to go and get a doctor’s note to prove that he was blind, but he could not afford to do so because he does not have health insurance.
A spokesman for the USCIS told the Post that they began offering Braille tests in November, months after Mr Delgado sat for his exam.
A lawyer for Mr Delgado said the USCIS had contacted him since his story was first reported last week to offer him another appointment later this month.
The DWP are trying to intimidate an increasing number of PIP appeal claimants into accepting a lower award than the claimant thinks is correct, the Guardian has revealed.
It has been known for some time that a small number of claimants who have lodged a PIP appeal are being telephoned by a decision maker with a better award than the one they are appealing against.
However, it appears that in an increasing number of cases claimants are being told that they must either accept the offer straight away over the phone, or within an hour when they will receive a call-back, or the offer will lapse.
This is almost certainly unlawful and unquestionably bad practice. If a decision maker believes a higher award is appropriate they should simply revise their decision, regardless of whether the claimant agrees or not.
What the claimant is not told in the course of these phone calls is that, even if they accept the offer , they are free to then lodge an appeal against it and they do not need to go through the mandatory reconsideration process again.
Instead, often vulnerable claimants without access to any sort of independent advice are pressured into accepting an award that is lower than the one they would have received if they had gone to a tribunal. They believe that by accepting the offer they have forfeited the right to appeal and so lose out, while the DWP saves money and avoids losing at yet another tribunal.
We’ll be updating our PIP appeals guide to warn readers of these underhand tactics. Meanwhile, we would be interested to hear from readers who have been victim of this sort of dishonest treatment.
The age limit for disability living allowance (DLA) is to be raised to 18 for existing claimants from September, the Scottish government has announced.
The Scottish government takes over disability benefits in April of this year. They say that they want to spare families the stress of changing from DLA to PIP at the same time as young people may be going through a number of other changes in their life.
According to the Scottish government:
young people in Scotland who are getting DLA Child from the Department for Work and Pensions who are due to turn 16 from September will no longer be invited to apply for PIP.
from 2nd March 2020 Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will start writing to parents or carers of children in receipt of DLA Child informing them of the change.
clients who have already had a letter from DWP asking them to apply for PIP, will need to do this if they require continued support.
clients who receive this letter must reply to DWP. They must say whether their child will need an appointee to manage their benefit once they turn 16.
clients who wish to are still able to move from DLA Child to PIP by making an application to the DWP. People should seek independent advice on what would be best for their circumstances.
16 to 18 years old will continue to have the choice to apply to the DWP for PIP up until the Scottish Government launches it replacement for PIP early 2021.
Child Disability Payment is the new Social Security Scotland benefit which will replace Disability Living Allowance for children living in Scotland.
Some of the poorest pensioners are set to get a payout worth a total of £70million, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced today. All Universal Credit claimants who no longer get the benefit when they reach state pension age will receive an average one-off payment of £350.
This is an estimated 200,000 people, who will automatically qualify for a run-on.
The measure is expected to cost around £70million over the next five years, the DWP said.
Previously, people moving between the benefits could face a wait of several weeks, leaving them low on cash.
Secretary of State, Thérèse Coffey said: “This top-up will ensure pensioners aren’t left in limbo when they’re waiting to get their state pension, with an average boost of £350.
“Since 2010 around 100,000 pensioners have moved out of poverty, thanks to policies such as the triple lock.”
Today, Ministers announced that the DWP will amend regulations to “smooth the transition from Universal Credit to pensioner benefits and remove any potential gap in support”.
Ministers said: “All those who reach state pension age while claiming Universal Credit will receive a run-on, meaning that they can receive a payment for the entire Assessment Period in which they reach state pension age.
“Entitlement to pensioner benefits and state pension is unaffected and continues as usual.
“This ensures there is no gap in benefit provision as people approach state pension age. This will benefit approximately 200,000 pensioners who will benefit by an average of £350 from this run-on at a cost of around £70 million over the next five years.
“This process is already in operation on an extra statutory basis, ensuring that nobody loses out upon reaching state pension age, and legislation will be amended accordingly later this year.”
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said: “It’s really good news that the Government is making this change so people will no longer be left in a position where they can wait several weeks without money when moving from Universal Credit to state pension.”
David Samson, Welfare Benefits Specialist at Turn2us, commented: “We welcome any government measure that helps people on low incomes, especially those who are most vulnerable.
“With this top-up payment, the DWP have just demonstrated the willingness and ability to address the sudden financial shortfall people reaching pension age would experience, during the period they are moved between benefits.
“As well as for pensioners, Turn2us hopes the department extends this practice of financial relief to also ensure that the millions of people – with little to no income – aren’t left dangling over the five week wait for their first Universal Credit payment.
“The current Universal Credit advances, all too readily offered to claimants to bridge that five week wait, are ill-considered and lumber many people already experiencing financial hardship with unmanageable debt.”
Universal Credit is replacing six types of benefits, which are known as legacy benefits.
These are:
Child Tax Credit
Housing Benefit
Income Support
Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Working Tax Credit
Currently, Universal Credit is open to new claimants, and exisiting benefits claimants who have had a change in circumstances.
A pilot scheme is currently underway in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, for the process of moving legacy benefits claimants who have not had a change in circumstances onto Universal Credit.
The Gov.uk website states that if a person currently gets any of the aforementioned legacy benefits, they do not need to do anything, unless:
They have a change of circumstances you need to report
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) contacts them about moving to Universal Credit.
In the past, the state pension age was 60 for women and 65 for men, however it is currently rising.
The age reached 65 for both men and women in November 2018, and it is currently increasing further – reaching 66 in October 2020 ahead of further rises to 67 and then 68 under current government plans.
It’s possible to check one’s state pension age online, using the ‘Check your State Pension age’ tool on the government website.
In addiiton to finding out a person’s state pension age, this service also allows a person to check their Pension Credit qualifying age, and when they’ll be eligible for free bus travel.
The students from Northern Ireland happened to leave the blood sugar monitors, which are fixed to their arms and help them manage their type one diabetes, in shot and the world wanted to know more. Now the two women from Belfast create TikTok videos – often just a few seconds long – as the Diabetic Duo to show what life with type one diabetes is really like, but in a lighthearted and sometime frivolous way – like the weirdest places they’ve injected insulin into themselves (think a cheerleading human pyramid) and what to do if your blood sugar levels drop at exactly the same time.
The Diabetic Duo reveal what its like to become social media stars overnight and how unusual it is that two best friends would both, coincidentally, be diagnosed as type one diabetics, a predisposed condition not affected by lifestyle, which only affects 8% of all diabetics.
If you have diabetes, please consult a health care professional before drinking alcohol.
Both Labour and the SNP have called on the Prime Minister to provide emergency legislation to protect workers’ rights and ensure people receiving Universal Credit do not face sanctions if they are unable to make an appointment due to the coronavirus outbreak.
In Prime Minister’s Questions, Ian Blackford MP asked that while the Governor of the Bank of England suggested a ‘financial bridge’ may be available to assist markets through any economic volatility, would there will also be a ‘financial bridge’ for ordinary workers and those on social security.
He said statutory pay must be in line with the Living Wage, and Universal Credit claimants must not face sanctions.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also urged the Prime Minister to ensure that workers and benefit claimants are protected from hardship, should they need to self-isolate and are unable to work or attend Jobcentre appointments.
The Prime Minister announced during PMQ’s that rules on statutory sickpay will be changed to allow Coronavirus patients to claim from the first day of their sickness.
But with many workers such as freelancers and the self-employed ineligible for sick-pay, opposition parties warned that those affected may be forced to choose between their health and financial security.
Commenting, SNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford MP said: “All of us must provide clear, calm and practical leadership in the days ahead.
“In the past few days Scotland’s First Minister, the Scottish Government and the Westminster government have been working closely to put plans in place to protect all of our people.
“Of course, people are worried about their health, but there are also millions of workers who are worried about the consequences for their incomes, their job security and their families.
“What they require from this Prime Minister is specific guarantees.
“While the Prime Minister confirmed that statutory sick pay will be available from day 1, millions of workers are not eligible because they do not meet the earnings threshold and it is not available for the self employed or those on zero-hours contracts.
“The payments must also be in line with the Living Wage. Small businesses must also be supported”.
Meanwhile, Labour’s John McDonnell accused the Chancellor Rishi Sunak of failing to act over the threat the Coronavirus poses to the economy.
“There is no sense of urgency from the Chancellor in his response to the potential economic impacts of coronavirus,” said Labour’s Shadow Chancellor.
“We cannot wait another week until the budget to have a plan published. People, businesses and the markets need clarity now that the government has a comprehensive economic plan in place.”
“We awaited a detailed economic plan but the sum total of economic thinking in the Government’s coronavirus action plan is a restatement of existing HMRC policy.”
“The Chancellor has failed to outline how he will respond to potential consequences for production, consumption, and GDP, or provide support for vulnerable workers.”
He continued: “The public will be disappointed that the Chancellor does not seem to appreciate the seriousness of the situation facing the economy, and he must urgently issue a plan from a Treasury perspective of the kind that Labour published on Monday.”
Dear readers I cant believe it we’ve got sunshine even though its freezing cold. My thoughts go out to everyone that is street homeless or can’t afford to heat their homes. I’ve been there, I know exactly what it feels like.
This week was busy and we had lots of conversations with people coming in and out of the Jobcentre. No one wants to be there in the first place and so many people struggle to make their appointments for various reasons. Just because someone looks ok doesn’t mean that they are and I hate the fact that so many people forget or brush aside hidden disabilities.
As usual our food parcels went almost straight away and we signposted everyone that we spoke to. Some just wanted a chat, we are often the only friendly face that they see from week to week.
The trial of a Paralympian accused of sexually assaulting a masseuse at a five-star hotel has collapsed after the prosecutor became unwell.
Lord Holmes of Richmond, who is blind, is alleged to have grabbed the massage therapist’s buttocks during a treatment last March.
The 48-year-old denies the allegations.
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court were dismissed only a day after the trial began as prosecutor Linda Strudwick was unable to continue.
High Court judge Mr Justice Nicol told jurors: “I am afraid I have been told Ms Strudwick is unwell; she was unable to continue this case.
“As a result of this, there is not somebody who can stand in at such short notice and I am afraid I have no option but to discharge you from dealing with this matter.”
The case will be referred tEo the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide if the peer will face a second trial.
Champion swimmer Lord Holmes won nine gold medals and broke 35 world records during his sporting career.
He later worked as a director of Paralympic integration for the London 2012 Games and took his seat as a Conservative peer in the House of Lords in 2013.
He is currently non-affiliated and does not belong to any parliamentary group.
The mother of a student who was found asphyxiated in a university campus room has called for greater communication with the families of undergraduates.
University of East Anglia (UEA) student Theo Brennan-Hulme, 21, from Stoke-on-Trent, died in March 2019.
A Norwich inquest heard he had Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism – and anxiety attacks.
His mother Esther Brennan said she hoped in future parents would be told if their children at UEA needed help.
In a statement she said: “I hope changes can be made for all the sons and daughters at university.”
Ms Brennan said her son was the “sweetest, happiest, [most] selfless gentleman you could know… and honest, kind and thoughtful”.
“The family is broken without him,” she said.
Mr Brennan-Hulme was a first year student studying English literature and creative writing when he died.
The inquest heard statements from student friends who said that partly due to mental health issues he had turned to alcohol, cocaine and MDMA.
His friend and flatmate Dan Willis said in a statement friends were concerned at his self-harm and recalled one occasion when Mr Brennan had cut his arms with a kitchen knife.
After Mr Brennan-Hulme’s death, the fourth student death in a year, the UEA announced an extra £250,000 – 55% increase – in student support services.
‘I Am At Tate Exchange Festival’ will form part of the 2020 Tate Exchange programme at Tate Modern
From 24-28 March, Tate Exchange will play host to over 300 D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse young people. Over five days, they will lead a variety of creative workshops, performances, and activities – showcasing their talents, opinions and ideas.
Now in its fourth year, I Am At Tate Exchange Festival is a partnership between creative learning specialists A New Direction and over 30 special education settings from across London. The festival works to advocate for richer cultural opportunities for D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse children and young people, while making disability more visible in London’s cultural venues, and demonstrating that children of all abilities can play an active role in London’s culture.
This year, the festival will explore the theme of ‘Power’ and will feature more student-led activity than ever before. Press are invited to join us for the opening day of the festival on 24 March, which will include:
A ‘power of kindness’ parade through Tate’s Turbine Hall, where students will hand out handmade gifts to gallery visitors
A musical performance exploring the multiplicity of self
Dramatic monologues in collaboration with Graeae Theatre
Clay making inspired by Anthony Gormley
Student-led cape making workshops, inspired by the patterns of Ian Wright and Yayoi Kusama
Non-verbal 10-minute talks, delivered by students in the Tate gallery
Students have also been working with a number of disabled and non-disabled artists in the lead up to the festival to create work which will be exhibited in the space. This year we will also be joined by a cohort of nine Festival Assistants, all of whom are on a work placement through my AFK – a national charity supporting disabled young people into work. The Festival Assistants will be supporting students throughout the week and engaging with the public.
Our work at I Am At Tate Exchange is underpinned by the following themes:
Access and inclusion in the cultural sector: A New Direction hopes the festival can provide a model for other cultural organisations to address issues around accessibility, representation and inclusion
Representation and rights of disabled young people: we believe that all disabled young people have the right to access the same opportunities and experiences as their non-disabled peers
Support for SEND educators and settings: it is well documented that SEND education is currently in a state of crisis, with funding stretched to breaking point. In this climate, it is more important than ever for other sectors to step in and help support some of the most vulnerable young people in society
For more information, see notes to editors below.
The festival is part of this year’s Tate Exchange programme – an ambitious ‘open experiment’ which allows other organisations and members of the public to participate in Tate’s creative process, running events and projects on site and using art as a way of addressing wider issues in the world around us.
Steve Moffitt, A New Direction CEO, said:
‘When we started I Am At Tate Exchange Festival four years ago, we were working with six schools. This year we will welcome over 30 schools into the space, and for the first time have been unable to accommodate everyone due to exceptional demand. This illustrates how important this work is and the appetite for what we’re doing. I’m hopeful that we will soon be seeing ‘I Am’ events popping up in more outstanding cultural venues across London.’
Frances Morris, Director, Tate Modern said:
‘Spending time at A New Direction’s I Am Festival impressed on me what a truly wonderful initiative it is. Seeing so many young people – many of whom had not been to Tate before – having the time of their lives has been such an amazing and humbling experience. In a time where increasing numbers of students with SEND are being forgotten, projects like the I Am Festival are only becoming more vital, and we at Tate are immensely proud to play our part in it.’
Shafiqur Rehman, 44, was diagnosed with polio at the age of six months due to the unavailability of vaccination in his region and became paralysed by the infectious disease that affected both his legs.
No efforts of parents or doctors could have helped him after he became differently-abled. However, at a certain point in his life, Shafiq realised that he would not be able to spend his life normally.
He promised himself that he would neither let his disability become a hindrance nor use it as an excuse to refrain from working. Eventually, he started working on a monthly wage of Rs125 and his efforts led him to establishing a factory for the differently-abled.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, Shafiq said he does not want other differently-abled people to face hurdles and problems as he had to face throughout his life due to polio.
As a result of this, Shafiq decided to provide work opportunities for differently-abled people and proved with his hard work that they should not lose hope and end up believing that they are incapable of doing something for themselves. “Some differently-abled persons negate themselves because of negative thinking instead of having a positive approach. This discourages others around them too.”
Shafiq further said that he has his private factory where wheelchairs are repaired and manufactured. “All the employees working in the factory are differently-abled individuals and they are also making other people skilled,” he said.
“Our business activities are usually designed for persons with disabilities who are striving for an honest earning,” he added. “All these people hired at the factory are no less than professional workers.”
The Association for Hearing Loss in Hokkaido, whose headquarters are in Obihiro City, has requested that fax number be added to contact information for people looking guidance about the coronavirus . “The deaf cannot contact without a fax number,” said Akiko Sasaki.
On February 17, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare requested prefectures and core cities to display fax numbers and e-mail addresses of consultation desks in consideration of the hearing impaired. By the end of February, fax numbers were added to the homepage (HP) that aggregates information related to road infectious diseases, but various announcements, such as municipal publicity magazines, often show only telephone numbers.
The website of Obihiro Health Center was also used as a consultation desk with only the telephone numbers of the health center, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The association has about 50 members. Faxing is the “lifeline” in an emergency. Sasaki said, “I want to be a society where fax numbers are always posted where phone numbers are posted.”
The government announced today that it will begin piloting a small scale, in-house, integrated PIP and WCA assessment service, but not until Autumn 2021. However, it also began inviting bids from the private sector for new PIP and WCA assessment contracts to run from August next year.
Justin Tomlinson, Minister of State for Disabled People, said that today’s move followed on from the undertaking given by the government in March 2019 that they would work towards an integrated assessment service for PIP and the WCA.
However, the new integrated assessment service will not even begin to be piloted until Autumn 2021, two and a half years after the original announcement.
Even then it will be “on a small scale in a defined part of the country, a Transformation Area”.
The new service will be run by the DWP and will look at:
trialling better ways of carrying out face-to-face assessments;
how to triage more effectively so that only those people who need a face-to-face assessment will have to undergo one;
how to make it easier for claimants to understand the evidence they need to provide and why;
how to remove the need for claimants to give the same information twice;
how to ensure that claimants are aware of the whole range of support available to them both from DWP and more widely.
Meanwhile, however, the minister also announced today that the government is issuing “Prior Information Notices” to tell private sector companies that they will be inviting bids to run the PIP and WCA assessment services from 1 August 2021, when the current contracts expire.
The reality then, is that the same or similar multinationals will get to carry on profiting from carrying out the same old sub-standard assessments whilst the DWP pretends to be working on improving the system.
So, five more years of plenty for Atos, Capita and Maximus or their rivals and five more years of assessments and appeals for sick and disabled claimants.
The call came out of the blue. Jennifer Ellis* had been rejected for personal independence payments (Pip) in October 2018 having scored zero points, despite struggling daily with bipolar type 2.
Ellis threw herself into the standard appeals process and waited for a tribunal date. But in February 2019, she got a call from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP): it had “re-evaluated her situation” and wanted to offer her 11 points.
Ellis describes it as “a poker game”: if she took the offer, she could bank the standard care rate but feared she would miss out on the higher award she needed. If she turned it down, she was told, she would go back down to zero points and have to risk it at a tribunal.
She was given five days to make a decision, and was not told she had a right to ask for legal advice. “They were dangling a carrot. They said I might have to wait another six months for an appeal date, with no money. But [if I took it], I’d get the money now, with back pay.”
Ellis turned down the offer but said she was made to feel “really uncomfortable” doing so. “It was like: ‘Well, if you want to take your chances’.”
The stress of it triggered her condition, and she began to fixate on the calls, anxiously questioning her decision. Her mental health means she struggles in social situations and she began to panic about going to court. “In my head, going to tribunal was the process – I could have coped. But when you get a call, you think: ‘Am I being stupid?’ It threw me totally.”
After a week, Ellis relented: she called the DWP and took the offer. “I just wanted it to stop,” she said. “I thought: ‘I can’t take this any more.’”
In one letter seen by the Guardian, Ellis’s assessor notes a number of concerns about her mental health – including her “chaotic thought process” and “difficulty making decisions” – but she was nonetheless contacted with the cold call without any support.
“I’ve attempted suicide many times,” she said. “Why would they put someone in a position that’ll obviously distress them?”
Ellis said she worries about other people getting these calls who are vulnerable to accepting a deal. “This sort of stress can push people to their limits … There’s no advice on whether this is normal, or what to do. You feel almost obliged to take it.”
Months later, Ellis said she regretted accepting the offer. “I wish they hadn’t called me. Now I’m stuck with the decision for two years.”
Vulnerable and disabled people are being pressured to accept unrecorded telephone “deals” paying thousands of pounds less in benefits than they may be legally entitled to, charities and lawyers have said.
The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of making “decide right now” offers to people who have appealed against a decision to deny them benefits. In some cases the people say they were told the offer would be withdrawn if they did not accept it within minutes.
It is claimed that by making the lower offers over the phone, the DWP is trying to settle cases that could lead to payments of significantly more each year if they go to a tribunal. Around 70% of such appeals go in favour of the people who bring them.
Several charities and law firms said they were aware of more than 100 phone deal cases between them. They accused the DWP of targeting those deemed to have a strong chance of success at a tribunal over personal independence payments (Pip) and employment and support allowance (ESA). Claimants may be susceptible to accepting a lower offer because of long tribunal waits and having no income in the meantime.
The Law for Life charity reported that it had heard from 57 claimants and 58 welfare rights advisers of cases where disabled people were telephoned and offered awards below what they could expect at appeal. The Law Centres Network, the Public Law Project, the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Scope also reported having clients who had received the same calls. In many of the reported cases there was no official record of the offers.
The DWP said that if someone accepted an offer they could continue to pursue their appeal, and would have any award at a higher rate backdated to ensure they did not miss out. But lawyers and charity workers told the Guardian they were aware of many cases where claimants were not told of their right to continue with their appeal, and others where they were told of their right, but were either too vulnerable to understand or felt so worn down by the process that they simply accepted.
Claimants, some with significant cognitive disabilities, receive unannounced phone calls in which they are given an offer and told they will be called back in an hour or less and asked for a decision. This occurred even in cases where a vulnerable appellant would need support or may be unaware of their legal right to take advice before making a decision. Some were given a number of days, but only when they argued they needed more time to decide.
In many cases offers appeared to have only been put in writing after the claimant agreed to the deal; a breach of typical DWP practice. There were also claims that the DWP called vulnerable claimants directly, rather than their carers or appointees.
One woman, who looks after her husband who has young person’s Alzheimer’s, said the DWP tried to call him despite express instructions to talk to her. In another case, a man with a learning disability who doctors assessed as having a mental age of six was forced to look for work after his family (who took the call on his behalf) accepted a “deal”.
The DWP changed its appeals process last year to allow for additional evidence to be gathered and taken into account so that an appeal can end if a satisfactory conclusion is reached. A spokesperson said: “We keep cases under ongoing review to make sure the claimant gets the right outcome. We know appeals take time to be heard and if a claimant provides more evidence with their appeal, then quite rightly the decision should be looked at again.”
However, claimants who spoke to the Guardian said they felt pressured to make an on-the-spot decision on a lower offer and were not told they could continue with their appeal.
One claimant said of a DWP worker who made an offer over the phone: “She was saying I have to decide right now and if I go to the tribunal I might not get anything at all, so it’s probably best to take this offer.” Another said: “I very definitely was being offered a ‘bribe’.”
RNIB said that in many cases “claimants have simply wanted to accept the offer and not continue with appeals despite being advised that the award is lower than their statutory entitlement. The reasons cited for this is usually the length of time they have waited and the stress of going through the assessment and dispute process. Some of our clients also reported feeling put under pressure by the DWP to accept the offer to settle.”
A Law Centres Network spokesman said clients were often left with the impression they had no choice, even if the reality was different. “In many cases the claimant’s condition makes such conversations inappropriate: even if DWP tell a vulnerable claimant that they can continue their appeal after they accept the offer, the impression left is of something like a ‘final offer’.”
One man, Andy, who was supported by RNIB, was offered £58.70 less a week over the phone than his statutory entitlement, which would have left him £3,000 worse off a year. While he rejected the offer and won his case at appeal, RNIB legal rights solicitor Claire Connolly said a growing number of customers were being contacted in a similar way and said: “Our evidence suggests that in most cases the offer has been lower than our customer’s statutory entitlement.”
The Public Law Project said it was working with a number of “distressed” people receiving the offers, and was considering taking legal action.
The Bristol Law Centre, which provides free legal advice to people dealing with social welfare cases, said it had seen several clients who had been contacted directly by the DWP rather than through their caseworkers, as would be considered best practice. One caseworker, Jack Mowll, said: “I think they don’t advise disabled people of their right to seek further advice before agreeing because they know that they would feel under pressure to accept an award – to ‘bank it’ – rather than face another event [the appeal hearing] where, as far as they know, they might be disbelieved again.”
Evidence is soon to be published of a link between the introduction of universal credit into an area and a rise in crime, according to leading professor of policing.
Ben Bradford, professor of global city policing, University College London, told Civil Service World:
“Violent crime clusters very heavily in deprived neighbourhoods… this is not rocket science. Violent crime is more likely to occur in poorer neighbourhoods because they are poor, and being poor has an effect.”
Bradford is part of a team at UCL that has been researching the impact of Universal Credit on crime.
The findings are being reviewed and are yet to be published. But Bradford says there appears to be “quite a strong” link. We found quite a strong effect. The introduction of Universal Credit into an area looked like it had the effect of increasing recorded crime in that area.”
The Iranian powerlifter won gold medals at both London 2012 and in Rio in 2016.
In Rio, he became the first ever Paralympian to lift more 300kg and his bench press record of 310kg still stands in the over-107kg category.
“The whole Paralympic movement is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Siamand Rahman,” said IPC president Andrew Parsons.
“Siamand was a pioneer for his sport, an inspiration for many in his home country, Iran, and around the world, and a fantastic ambassador for the Paralympic movement.
“He was also a wonderful human being, a gentle giant and one of the friendliest people you could ever meet.”
Rahman set new world records nine times between 2014 and 2016, as well as winning the world title in Dubai in 2014.
He won two more world titles in 2017 and 2019, while his performance at the Rio Paralympics, when he lifted 75kg more than his nearest rival, saw him named best male at the Paralympic Sports Awards that year.
Rahman had been targeting a third Paralympic gold in Tokyo and had promised to try to break his current record in the process.
Double amputee Blake Leeper has launched an appeal to run at the Tokyo Olympics after he was banned from competing by World Athletics.
Leeper runs with prosthetic blades and qualified for the 2019 World Championships but was not allowed to compete while his case was reviewed.
He has now appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) to aim to qualify for Tokyo.
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius won a similar appeal in 2008.
American Leeper 30, has run the 400m in 44.3 seconds – a time fast enough to qualify for the US Olympic trials in June. Leeper has asked for an expedited hearing so that a ruling can be reached in time.
“I trust in Cas to recognise that I do not have any advantage over able-bodied athletes,” said Leeper. “I just want a fair chance to compete.”
Leeper, who was born without both legs below the knee, is using the same legal team that in 2008 fought successfully for Pistorius, who went on to compete at the 2012 London Olympics.
However, there has been a significant shift in the way World Athletics, formerly the IAAF, reviews such cases since 2015. The burden of proof is now on the athlete to show they are competing on equal terms and hold no advantage.
Leeper’s lawyer, Jeffrey Kessler, said that placing the onus on Leeper to prove he does not have a competitive edge is flawed and contravenes his human rights.
“Today’s appeal is the latest step in Mr Leeper’s fight for equality on behalf of all disabled athletes who have been unjustifiably prevented from competing in sporting events because of their reliance on necessary prostheses,” said Kessler.
Leeper won silver in the T43 400m and bronze in the 200m at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, trailing Pistorius both times. He missed the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games because of drugs ban, after testing positive for cocaine.
He currently has no classification to compete in Paralympic events.
Two thirds of deaf young people would hide their deafness on a job application, new report shows.
Careers advice for deaf young people across the country is not up to standard, leaving them unprepared for the world of work.
Nearly half are not supported by schools and colleges to make decisions about their futures.
The National Deaf Children’s Society says urgent change is needed to stop deaf young people “battling the odds just to get a job.”
“Basically I feel like I am the problem, but I know that isn’t true,” said one deaf young person.
Two in three deaf young people would hide their deafness on a job application because they fear it would harm their chances, according to a new report from the National Deaf Children’s Society.
Deaf Works Everywhere, based on in-depth research with over 100 deaf young people, also says that deaf youngsters are being left to fend for themselves because career advice is badly tailored, outdated and unfit for purpose.
The report, written for the charity by deaf young activists who visited schools and colleges across the UK, reveals that 63% of deaf young people interviewed would hide their deafness on job applications because they fear they’d be overlooked for the position otherwise.
It also shows that almost half (45%) feel they aren’t being supported by their school or college when thinking about choices for the future. In addition, nine in 10 (90%) aren’t aware of Access To Work, the UK Government-funded grant for disabled people to spend on support at work like accessible equipment, technology or interpreters.
The report also includes some shocking excerpts from interviews with deaf young people, with some angry at other people’s low aspirations for them. One said: “I went to a careers fair and someone was there from the police. They said, ‘You are deaf, you cannot work for us’. But my dad is deaf and he works for the police.”
Another said: “I really want to be a watchmaker. My teacher told me that people would not understand me so I couldn’t do that job.”
They also spoke of struggling on work experience placements due to a lack of deaf awareness. One said: “I was too nervous to say that I couldn’t understand them. I never told them I was hard of hearing and just kept missing conversations.”
Another added: “Basically I feel like I am the problem, but I know that isn’t true. It is the situation that is the problem, but I’m deaf and in the centre.”
The report says that although deaf young people have the same rights to good quality careers advice and support as hearing people, they often have negative experiences and don’t receive the same opportunities to move into work.
In response, the National Deaf Children’s Society is calling on local authorities, schools, colleges and Governments across the UK to work together to ensure that deaf young people receive specialist careers advice.
The charity says that advice must be tailored to include information about deaf-specific support and technology, and be more accessible, taking into account the range of communication needs deaf young people have.
The report is part of the National Deaf Children’s Society’s new campaign, Deaf Works Everywhere, to get more deaf young people into work – and into jobs that inspire them.
Martin McLean, Policy Advisor at the National Deaf Children’s Society, said:
“This report should come as a huge wake-up call to everyone who has an influence on deaf young people’s lives.
“Deaf young people have an incredible amount to offer and they’re perfectly capable of doing the same jobs as their hearing friends, but they’re being left to fend for themselves because careers advice is either non-existent or totally inaccessible.
“Schools, colleges and local authorities need to urgently improve the quality of support they’re offering because many of them just aren’t delivering for deaf young people.
“Until this advice is up to scratch, deaf young people will continue to battle the odds to get a job without any idea of the additional support they could get, missing out on their dream careers and hiding their deafness along the way.”
Jovita Bodamer-MacGregor, 15, from London, is one of the report’s authors. She said:
“This is extremely important to me because careers advice is one of the things that we don’t get support with. The report and the campaign are going to raise awareness and give deaf young adults a much better idea of their rights in the working world. I strongly believe this needs supporting.
“My message to all deaf young people is be confident and be strong, you can be whoever you want to be.”
Bucharest is the most wheelchair-friendly city in Europe – London and Copenhagen are some of the worst equipped
Many of us want to travel the world and explore new cities and cultures, but for those with accessibility needs, there are often additional things to consider when planning a getaway. Finding a suitable place to stay is often a top consideration.
HomeToGo, the world’s largest accommodation search engine, has conducted a report into the most wheelchair-friendly cities in Europe. As this Sunday marks ‘International Wheelchair Day’ this study reveals which destinations have the best suited accommodations for people with who need wheelchair access, and which cities are lagging behind.
For the study, HomeToGo used their database of over 17 million properties, which encompasses all major holiday rental providers (including AirBNB and Booking.com). Only cities with 500,000 inhabitants or more were included in the report. The study reveals a list of the 20 major European cities that have the highest proportion of wheelchair-friendly accommodation options.
Bucharest achieved the highest score overall with a total of 11.4% of properties in the city listed as ‘wheelchair accessible’. Following closely behind were Balkan capitals Sofia (10.41%) and Sarajevo (10.20%).
The three top ranking cities are all from South-Eastern Europe, an area that has seen a large influx in tourism in recent years (with an increase in annual arrivals of around 15 million since 2010). These up-and-coming destinations are a great choice for those with accessibility needs and are perfect if you want to experience something slightly off the beaten track.
The top 5 most accessible cities:
Rank
City
Country
% Wheelchair Accessible Properties
1
Bucharest
Romania
11.40%
2
Sofia
Bulgaria
10.41%
3
Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
10.20%
4
Barcelona
Spain
9.80%
5
Naples
Italy
9.66%
On the other hand, Copenhagen is the least wheelchair-friendly city in our ranking, with only 3.25% of properties offering wheelchair access. This may be in part due to the many multi-story apartment buildings that are popular there. Bristol (4.79%) and London (4.82) also lacked good provisions for those with accessibility needs, with many historic buildings that can lack the infrastructure for wheelchairs.
The five least wheelchair-friendly cities:
Rank
City
Country
% Wheelchair Accessible Properties
1
Copenhagen
Denmark
3.25%
2
Bristol
UK
4.79%
3
London
UK
4.82%
4
Riga
Latvia
5.72%
5
Helsinki
Finland
5.89%
Please refer here for more information and the full study:
A Queensland mother is demanding answers after police tasered her teenage daughter, who has cerebral palsy, at her Townsville school.
The mother says she cannot fathom why police acted the way they did, when her daughter has significant physical limitations and suffers seizures.
Police say the girl began damaging property and lunged at an officer after they went to her Mundingburra school to speak to her about a separate matter on Thursday.
“She’s got cerebral palsy, she has seizures, and she’s only got the use of one hand and she’s not very good on her legs, so why taser her,” the unnamed mother has told the ABC.
The woman said she learned what had happened when a child safety officer called to advise that her daughter was in hospital.
She said she assumed the teen had suffered a seizure at school but was told she’d been tasered.
“She said that they tasered her twice, they had her handcuffed to the bed,” the mother said.
“They said that she had a cricket bat and she was smashing things with it.”
The woman has said she will lodge a complaint with police.
Police have issued a statement confirming the incident, saying the girl had been damaging property and also lunged at an officer.
“A 16-year-old girl has sustained minor injuries after being subject to a taser deployment at an educational facility in Mundingburra,” police said.
“The girl was speaking with officers in relation to a separate matter when she allegedly became aggressive and started damaging property. As police and staff attempted to calm the girl she lunged at an officer who subsequently deployed their taser.”
The girl was taken to hospital but was not seriously injured, police said.
Her mother says she suffered bruises to her stomach.
A study has linked a spike in mental-health problems among the unemployed with the rollout of universal credit and other government welfare changes.
The number of unemployed people with psychological distress rose 6.6% between 2013 and 2018, it suggests.
And this represents an extra 63,674 people in England, Wales and Scotland – 21,760 of whom became clinically depressed over the period.
The government highlighted the study found no causal link.
‘Mounting evidence’
Prof Dame Margaret Whitehead, of the University of Liverpool, who co-authored the Lancet Public Health Journal study, said it had found “observational associations” rather than “cause and effect”.
The spike in mental-health cases could also have been influenced by the broader range of welfare changes, she said.
But the study added to the “mounting evidence of substantial mental-health harms related to universal credit”.
And it was crucial the government conducted robust health-impact assessments of all welfare changes, including universal credit.
Long delays
The researchers found no links to any impact on physical health, however, or any evidence universal credit had led to an increase in the number of claimants finding jobs.
Launched in 2013, universal credit, which combines six benefits into one, was an attempt to simplify the welfare system and get more people into work.
But its implementation has been criticised for introducing long delays and a tougher use of sanctions.
Numerous concerns have been raised by MPs, charities and select committees and there have been several cases of vulnerable individuals killing themselves after having problems with the new system.
The researchers followed more than 52,000 working-age people between 2009 and 2018, who were taking part in Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “People coming into the job centre are often doing so at a difficult time in their lives and there is a range of support available for those with mental-health conditions.”
The family of an Australian boy who gained global fame in a viral video after he was bullied have turned down a crowdfunded trip to Disneyland and vow to give the money to charity instead.
Yarraka Bayles posted a clip of her son, Quaden, crying after he was targeted at school for his dwarfism.
More than $308,000 (£240,000) has since been given to an online campaign.
His family told local media that they were touched by the gesture, but wanted to focus on “the real issue”.
“This little fellow has been bullied. How many suicides, black or white, in our society have happened due to bullying?,” his aunt, Mundanara Bayles, told NITV.
“We want the money to go to community organisations that really need it,” she added. “As much as we want to go to Disneyland, I think our community would far off benefit from that.”
The family said they would like to give the money to two charities: Dwarfism Awareness Australia, and the Balunu Healing Foundation.
They said they are also in discussions with Brad Williams, a US comedian who started the campaign on GoFundMe, and who has the same dwarfism condition of Achondroplasia.
Mr Williams stated on the campaign website that “any excess money” from the Disneyland trip would be donated to anti-bullying and anti-abuse charities.
Under GoFundMe’s terms, all donated funds must be used “solely for the purpose you have stated on and in connection with your campaign”.
Celebrities like actor Hugh Jackman and basketball player Enes Kanter have also shared their support online, while parents in other countries have posted video messages from their own children.
If you or someone you know needs support for issues around this story, in Australia you can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636. In the UK these organisations may be able to help.
Entering director Amy Leach’s rehearsal room at Leeds Playhouse, one of the first things you notice is the big screen at one end. As Leach explains, it’s there to display the script, freeing the performers’ hands to sign. It’s a reminder that integrating access into the theatre-making process involves rethinking habits and assumptions at every level. “It can be small; it can be massive,” says Leach.
Leach is currently rehearsing a new, fully accessible production of Oliver Twist. It’s the latest show staged as part of Ramps on the Moon, a programme that aims to put accessibility at the heart of theatre institutions. Placing deaf and disabled artists and audiences at the centre from day one, the production adopts what Jenny Sealey, artistic director of Graeae and dramaturg on this project, calls “an aesthetics of access”.
Dickens’s literature, with its rich description and bustling urban landscapes, generates countless creative possibilities for accessible storytelling. “When I was thinking about what would be a story that you could use all the senses to tell, Dickens felt like a great fit for that,” recalls Leach. “He’s so visual, but also you feel like you get all the sounds of London.”
She adds that Oliver Twist still has a bitter relevance today, particularly for disabled performers and audiences. “We’re not that far away from a Victorian society, actually, in so many aspects of government culture and benefits and all the rest of it,” she suggests. Sealey agrees “we are still living in a Dickensian world where desperate people do desperate things”.
Staging well-known classics like Oliver Twist is a key part of Ramps on the Moon’s strategy. “It’s about opening up audiences to maybe things that they wouldn’t normally be exposed to,” explains Leach. It’s also important, she notes, to give deaf and disabled actors the opportunity to play these much-loved roles, thereby shifting mindsets around casting. Sealey adds: “It’s about being valued, being given opportunities as artists, and not being pigeonholed.”
This Oliver Twist will be both familiar and unfamiliar. “Audiences come with a set of expectations when you do a Dickens story, so you don’t want to go too far away from those expectations,” says Leach. “In one sense, what you want to do is deliver a really vivid, Dickensian, Victorian world that’s got all those brilliantly bold characters that you know, and this adaptation absolutely hits all the plot points you would expect of an Oliver Twist. But on the flip side, we’ve really pushed the visual and aural storytelling across the piece.”
The language of Dickens – which, as Leach says, can be “dense” and “impenetrable” – has been stripped back to a spare, lean script designed to work on three levels: as spoken English, as British Sign Language, and as integrated audio description. “For a visually impaired audience, there has to be an element of storytelling,” explains adapter Bryony Lavery. Her script incorporates a composite character called “Us”: a chorus of storytellers responsible for making the narrative accessible for everyone in the audience.
Lavery, Leach and the rest of the team have also thought carefully about how placing deaf and disabled performers into this story might change and enrich the narrative. Lavery notes that “there are so many different versions of Oliver Twist, but this is very particular to who we are in this group of performers”. At the centre of this telling is a deaf Oliver, starved of communication as well as neglected and underfed.
This adaptation is steeped in research of 19th-century attitudes towards deafness. The thinking of the time is exemplified by the 1880 Milan Conference, which banned the use of sign language in schools – a decision that continues to have negative repercussions for the deaf community. In Leach and Lavery’s version, then, Fagin’s gang communicate covertly in BSL, adding an extra sense of the clandestine to their activities.
As Leach says, this approach is “the opposite of gender-blind or colourblind or disability-blind casting: when you embrace people’s actual identity, it just brings so much richness to things”. It suggests a cultural shift that appeals as much to imagination as it does to inclusion. “When it’s a creative thing then the possibilities are endless, aren’t they?” she says. “That’s the whole point of theatre.”
Oliver Twist is at Leeds Playhouse, 28 February-21 March. Then touring until 6 June.
A press release from the Department For Transport.
124 stations across Great Britain to benefit from a share of £20m for accessibility improvements
Latest in a series of improvements by the Transport Secretary to accelerate the pace of change for a more accessible transport network
Follows launch of new campaign to improve journeys for disabled people when using public transport
Disabled passengers across Great Britain are set to benefit from accessibility improvements at 124 stations thanks to a £20m government fund.
The enhancements announced by the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps today (February 26) are funded through the Access for All programme and will include new lifts, accessible toilets and customer information screens.
It comes as a new Government campaign launched this week to improve the journeys of disabled passengers on public transport.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said:
“The ability to travel easily from A to B is an essential factor for our day to day lives – but is not the reality for everyone.
“I recognise that we have much more to do, which is why we’re making 124 train stations across the country more accessible – a key part of levelling-up access for disabled people to transport and opening up opportunities for all.
“This is just the start of a much more ambitious agenda. My goal is to go much further in the years ahead to help ensure that our country’s transport system becomes one of the most accessible in the world.”
These improvements are being made through the Access for All programme which, since 2006, has already made more than 200 stations step free, as well as delivered smaller scale accessibility improvements at more than 1,500 others to improve passenger experience.
Today’s £20million is part of a £300million package announced last year which is already providing accessible, step free routes at 73 stations across Great Britain, making it easier for disabled people to travel on the UK’s rail network.
Minister for Disabled People Justin Tomlinson said:
“Everyone using our rail network deserves platforms and toilets they can use and this £20million investment to improve 124 railway stations across the country will make a huge difference to disabled people.
“This Government is committed to levelling up the playing field and later this year we’ll launch a national strategy which will ensure disabled people have equal access to all spheres of life.”
This follows the launch of the ‘it’s everyone’s journey’ advertising campaign to highlight how we can all play a part in making public transport inclusive. The campaign is being supported by more than 100 partners, including First Group, WHSmith Travel and the Alzheimer’s Society.
Department for Transport research has shown that behaviours that make public transport a daunting place for disabled people are often unconscious, such as not looking out for a fellow passenger who might need a seat or be in distress.
‘it’s everyone’s journey’ will raise awareness about the needs of disabled people when using public transport, particularly people with non-visible impairments, and will also prompt members of the public to think and consider how their behaviour might impact others.
Alongside this, the Department has also launched its Inclusive Transport Leaders scheme, an accreditation scheme which will encourage, celebrate and promote best practice in inclusive transport.
Operators, such as bus and train companies, are encouraged to sign up to the Inclusive Transport Leaders Scheme, where they will work towards one of three accreditation levels by demonstrating the steps they have taken to improve the travelling experiences of disabled passengers, older people, and those with reduced mobility.
These improvements form part of the wider Inclusive Transport Strategy and supports the Government’s ambition of achieving equal access for all on public transport.
Rights as a blue badge holder – what are you entitled to?
If you have a Blue Badge, you will open up a range of opportunities. The badge may be issued automatically if you receive a mobility allowance. One example of this is that it allows you to park closer to a destination, whether you’re a passenger or the driver, and is usually issued by your local council for a period of three years and costs £10.
However, if you have an allowance which ends before the three-year period ends, your Blue Badge will coincide with this. Alongside Blue Badges, mobility allowance can also be a good way to find yourself the perfect motability vehicle.
If you are the owner of a Blue Badge, you have many rights and responsibilities you should be aware of. Here, alongside used car dealers Lookers, we take a look at the necessary information to ensure you’re in the know.
How can you apply for a Blue Badge?
You must have your National Insurance number readily available if you are applying for your own badge, or a child reference number if the application is for a minor. If you already have a driving licence, you’ll be required to provide your details alongside the number, local council and expiry date on your current Blue Badge — if you own one.
Also required is proof of identification, a photo which is up to date, proof of address and, if you’re automatically eligible, your original decision letter from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) will need to be provided. You’ll be required to fill in an additional section on the form if you’re not automatically eligible. You should hear back from your council within six to eight weeks and you may be asked to do a mobility assessment or to send extra information before you are granted with the badge. If for whatever reason you are refused, you can ask for the decision to be reconsidered. To apply when you’re automatically eligible is straightforward and you can fill in the form online, or by contacting your local council.
Which requirements must you meet to qualify for a Blue Badge?
The applicant must be over two years old to qualify. There are five reasons you will automatically qualify:
You get a Personal Independence Payment which shows an eligible descriptor of the ‘moving around’ activity of the mobility component
You receive a War Pensioner’s Mobility supplement
You receive a higher rate of the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
You are registered blind
You have been given a sum by the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme and have been registered with a substantial and permanent disability
However other reasons you may be entitled to own a Blue Badge include if you:
Have a substantial or permanent disability that means you can’t, or it’s very difficult to walk
Have a terminal illness which interferes with your ability to walk and has led to you being issued with a DS1500
Regularly drive a vehicle and have severe disabilities with your arms
Can you use your blue badge abroad?
Your Blue Badge is also recognised throughout the European Union (EU). However, it must be noted that the concessions provided may not be the same as those in the UK. This highlights that currently, there are no arrangements in place that would allow you to use your badge outside the EU in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada.
Is there particularly areas which it can’t be used?
You must always display your blue parking clock in sight for wardens to see your arrival time. Unlike other drivers, holding a Blue Badge allows you to park on single or double yellow lines for up to three hours as long as you’re not blocking any loading or unloading areas.
Make sure you know what any off-street car park establishments’ status is. You should never assume you can just park for free or you may receive a nasty surprise.
You must also remember that just because you own a Blue Badge, you don’t have free reign on where you can park. Also, if you’re not the driver, you must make sure whoever is behind the wheel also knows this. It is only intended for on-street parking, with off-street car parks such as supermarkets spaces being governed by separate rules. You must make sure you do not park anywhere which could cause an obstruction or be a danger to other road users. Doing so may result in a Penalty Charge Notice being handed out, or worse yet your vehicle may be removed.
If you’re not in England, but still in the UK, check what that country’s concessions are with the relevant authority. The same goes for travelling in London — check with Transport for London for further information. This is due to the fact the scheme doesn’t fully apply in the City of London, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and part of the London Borough of Camden.
If you’re parking in a zone which is covered by parking meters and pay-and-display machines, you are able to park free of charge for as long as is required if you display your badge. This also goes for disabled parking bays, unless it states otherwise.
Can someone use a blue badge on your behalf?
If you’re a passenger or the driver, then your badge is okay to use. However, misuse is illegal. If the badge is used without you in attendance, the user could be fined up to £1,000 and the badge may be confiscated. If you are a passenger, it’s your responsibility to make sure that the driver is aware of any rules laid out.
Don’t ever allow your family or friends to use the badge to gain free parking – even if they are using it to visit you. Also, although it’s not illegal to do so, you shouldn’t sit in the car while someone else takes advantage of the badge’s benefits.
Is there a correct way to display your blue badge?
Don’t have your photograph on show, but do make sure your details remain legible. The best way to do this is by placing it on the dashboard or facia panel so that it can be read through your front windscreen. It’s your responsibility to make sure the badge is visible to any traffic warden that may pass your vehicle.
So, it’s clear that the Blue Badge is a top tool to help those who need it continue your everyday life. However, be sure to take note of where you can and can’t use it to make sure you aren’t stung be any unwanted fines!
Labour MP Debbie Abrahams accused the minister for disabled people, Justin Tomlinson, of having ‘a bit of a smirk’ and finding something ‘amusing’ about a debate yesterday into the deaths of claimants. Tomlinson denied the accusation, which came almost immediately after Abrahams had read out a list of 20 claimants who had taken their own lives.
Yesterday’s brief debate took place in an almost empty house of commons.
Abrahams spoke knowledgeably about claimant deaths and the need for a full, independent inquiry.
She pointed out the role of PIP assessments and work capability assessments in harming claimants and quoted a report which found the WCA associated with an additional 590 suicides in three years:
“Peer-reviewed research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health estimated that, between 2010 and 2013, work capability assessments were independently associated with an additional 590 suicides, 280,000 cases of self-reported mental health problems, and 725,000 antidepressant scripts.”
Abrahams read out a list of more than 20 claimants, briefly describing the circumstances in which each had taken their own lives or died of an illness made worse by benefits problems. At times she was closing to breaking down and fellow MPs intervened to give Abrahams time to compose herself.
She talked about the inquest into the death of Errol Graham who died of starvation after his benefits were stopped and how shocked his family were by the behaviour of the QC acting for the DWP who:
“ . . . tried to intimidate not just the family but others, shouting at the police officer who found Errol’s body about what else he had seen. In particular, they were deeply offended that the police officer was asked whether he had found any takeaway menus or cartons. It was clear at that inquest that the Government were far from being in listening mode or trying to learn from this. Rather, they were seeking to blame, which is absolutely unforgivable.”
Immediately after reading out the list, Abrahams pointed out that the work and pensions committee had called for a body modelled on the police Independent Complaints Commission to investigate the deaths of claimants.
She then turned to Tomlinson and said: “Would the Minister like to intervene? I believe there is something he finds amusing about this.”
Tomlinson responded: “No, there is not.”
Abrahams: “Okay. I just saw a bit of a smirk.”
Tomlinson: “It was not.”
Abrahams: “I hope it was not.”
Throughout the debate Abrahams relied heavily on the investigative work of the campaigning journalist John Pring of Disability News Service, who brought to light the death of Errol Graham and many others.
The sanctions regime for employment and support allowance (ESA) has been almost completely abandoned by the DWP, but sanctions for universal credit remain high the latest government figures reveal.
For ESA, sanction rates were at their highest in April 2014 when 5,565 claimants were sanctioned, representing 1.04% of ESA claimants.
Since then numbers have steadily dropped.
In the latest month for which figures are available, June 2019, there were just 122 sanctions, representing 0.04% of ESA claimants.
For JSA, sanctions were at their highest in October 2013 with 21,442 sanctions representing 1.78% of claimants.
In June 2019 there were only 95 sanctions, representing 0.05% of JSA claimants.
UC sanctions have also fallen over time.
In March 2017 33,217 claimants had a sanction representing a staggering 9.3% of claimants.
That percentage has fallen considerably since then.
In November 2019 the percentage of UC claimants with a sanction had fallen to 2.38%,. But the number of sanctions is now higher at 38,181 due to the much higher take-up of UC.
The figures suggest that the years of pressure over sanctions have had an effect on the DWP’s behaviour.
But rather than honestly admit that they were always a dreadful, counterproductive concept the DWP have just gradually and surreptitiously reduced their use.
The fact that they remain so high in relation to UC, even if lower than at their height, suggests that it is too soon to stop campaigning against sanctions. This is particularly the case as ESA claimants will, over the coming years, face forced migration to UC and its more aggressive sanctions regime.
They have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying all non-fatal disabilities should be subject to the standard 24-week abortion limit.
Heidi Crowter, who has the condition, said the law was “deeply offensive”.
The government said any decision to terminate “must rest on the judgement of the woman and her doctors”.
‘Unloved and unwanted’
The Down’s Syndrome Association estimates about 40,000 people in the UK live with the condition – which is caused by the presence of an extra chromosome in a baby’s cells.
Ms Crowter told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme the current law, contained within the 1967 Abortion Act, made her feel “unloved and unwanted”.
She said her life was as valuable as someone who does not have Down’s syndrome.
Her mother, Liz Crowter, called for the law to be updated to recognise “all babies in the womb are treated the same”.
Cheryl Bilsborrow, whose two-year-old son Hector has Down’s syndrome, described the present law as “downright discrimination”.
She said, as an older mother, she had felt pushed into taking a test to detect if her baby would likely have the condition.
Then, she added, she felt “pressured to terminate”, saying she was offered an abortion at full term, three days before giving birth to Hector.
Ms Bilsborrow said she was told by a medical professional: “You do know we still terminate babies with Down’s syndrome at 38 weeks?”.
She told the programme: “I was completely blown away, shocked and disgusted.”
She described Hector as a child who was “gorgeous” and loved.
“All babies – and children – should be treated equal,” she added.
The Department of Health and Social Care told the BBC “any decision to terminate must rest on the judgement of the woman and her doctors.
“Only when two doctors both agree there is a risk a child will be born with a serious abnormality can an abortion take place outside the 24-week limit,” it added.
What is the abortion law in England, Scotland and Wales?
Abortions can take place in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in England, Scotland and Wales.
However, they have to be approved by two doctors. They must agree having the baby would pose a greater risk to the physical or mental health of the woman than a termination.
Abortions were illegal before the introduction of the 1967 Abortion Act, which initially allowed them to take place up to 28 weeks. This was reduced to 24 weeks in 1990.
Abortions after 24 weeks are allowed only if:
The woman’s life is in danger
There is a severe foetal abnormality
The woman is at risk of grave physical and mental injury
Since 2018, women in England have been allowed to take the second of two early abortion pills at home, rather than in a clinic. This brings the rules in line with Scotland and Wales.
As part of the campaign, Ms Bilsborrow and Ms Crowther are also calling for the 24-week abortion limit to be extended to all non-fatal disabilities, as well as Down’s syndrome.
But the charity British Pregnancy Advisory Service said it opposed “any attempt to stop women from making their own decisions about whether or not to continue a pregnancy”.
“We have long believed that abortion should not be governed by the criminal law, but by medical law – which would enable women and their doctors to come to a decision about their pregnancy without having to meet specific legal criteria”.
It said individual women were “only trying to make the best decision for their families”.
“There is no contradiction between doing all we can to ensure the rights of people with disabilities while protecting women’s ability to make their own decisions in pregnancy,” it added.
In some severe cases, issues such as those affecting foetal brain development may not be diagnosed until the third trimester.
Ms Crowther told the BBC she “understands” a 24-week limit would prohibit the choices of some women, but that “most disabilities would be found before 24 weeks”.
The average life expectancy for a person with Down’s syndrome is between 50 and 60 – with a small number of people living into their seventies.
Heidi, 24, urged those expecting a child with the condition to “meet someone with Down’s syndrome, and really get to know them.
“Don’t be scared,” she added. “See that there’s a person behind [the extra] chromosome.”
Women in Scotland who have experienced complications following vaginal mesh surgery are to be offered an independent review of their case notes.
Mesh implants have been used to treat conditions some women suffer after childbirth, such as incontinence and prolapse.
However, many women experienced painful, debilitating side effects.
The practice was suspended in Scotland, in all but exceptional circumstances in 2014.
Some of the women who have suffered complications met First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last November.
She was told a number of them had understood the mesh would be completely removed but that had not happened, leaving some of the synthetic substance still attached.
After hearing about their experiences, Ms Sturgeon has now written to the women she saw, confirming that in the spring they will be given the chance to sit down with an independent clinician for a review of their case notes.
That will be followed up by a report and possible referral to specialist care.
The case note review will initially only be offered to those who attended the first minister’s meetings however, it may be offered more widely at a later date.
A fund of £1m is also expected to be made available to support those affected by mesh complications.
Marian Kenny, 60, from Glasgow, said that despite having had her mesh implant partially removed, its effects had “invaded” every part of her life.
She had to give up work as a community psychiatric nurse, is now on benefits and suffers “crippling, chronic pain” day-to-day as well as asthma.
After attending the meeting in November, Marian received a letter from the first minister saying that their concerns had been heard and that dates had been proposed to an expert US surgeon to meet with certain patients.
But she believes more needs to be done – from a total end to mesh implant treatments to training surgeons in Scotland in more advanced removal methods.
She said: “The first minister is saying she doesn’t want to recall anyone – if we were cars, we would be recalled.
“I hope to god no one else has to go through this, but that’s not what I’m seeing. What I’m seeing is there are still women getting injured by mesh for prolapse, problems with their bowels and hernia.
“It’s like a conveyer belt, they stop using it for one thing then they increase it because it’s quick, it’s cheap. As a nurse I can understand the reasons why surgeons have been reluctant to let it go, but as a person who has been injured by it, I can’t see it.”
The grandmother, who currently cannot lift her newborn grandchild, says she is “determined” to continue campaigning, both to help women affected by mesh and for future generations.
Marian added: “I’ve got to have hope, my life is in tatters. I’ve got a granddaughter and daughters-in-law – I don’t want them ever to be offered this for a simple issue that can be fixed in other ways.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “The first minister and I are absolutely determined to do everything possible to ensure that all women affected by transvaginal mesh problems get the treatment and the care that they need.
“When we met with women affected last year they were able to share with us their painful and continuing experience. We are very grateful to them for that.
“The case note review will hopefully give these women the answers they require about their situation.”
The obstetrician-gynaecologist, from St Louis, has developed techniques for the full removal of vaginal mesh implants.
He had offered to operate on women and train surgeons in Scotland “in good faith”.
However, in October he withdrew his offer of help, saying that after months of “interminable discussions” he did not believe officials were serious about him visiting Scotland.
Rose Ayling-Ellis will make her debut as Frankie as Albert Square residents reel from the tragic boat crash, which claimed the life of young Dennis Watts.
Quaden Bayles, the Australian boy who was bullied at school for dwarfism and received an outpouring of global support after a video of him sobbing went viral, has led out an Indigenous rugby league team.
The nine-year-old Murri boy, who dreams of becoming a professional rugby player, strode on to the pitch with the players for an exhibition match in Queensland between Australia’s Indigenous All Stars, made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players, and the New Zealand Māori, just days after his mother posted a clip of him crying after school.
Fullback Latrell Mitchell, of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, had invited him to lead out the side in a video. “We’ve got your back and just want to make sure that you are doing all right … we want you around, we want you to lead us out on the weekend,” he said.
Bayles held the hand of team captain Joel Thompson as he walked on to the pitch, after receiving support from actor Hugh Jackman, comedian Brad Williams and basketball player Enes Kanter in recent days.
In the video posted by his mother Yarraka Bayles, she said: “This is what bullying does,” while her son sobbed.
“I’ve just picked my son up from school, witnessed a bullying episode, rang the principal, and I want people to know, parents, educators, teachers, this is the effect that bullying has,” she said.
“Every single … day, something happens. Another episode, another bullying, another taunt, another name-calling. Can you please educate your children, your families, your friends?”
The clip has since been viewed millions of times and led to an outpouring of public sympathy. Jackman told Bayles: “You are stronger than you know,” and urged everyone to be kind.
On Friday, Yarraka Bayles said that Quaden was “going from the worst day of his life to the best day of his life” after he captured the hearts of people around the world.
Maysoon Zayid is an American actress and comedian of Palestinian heritage. Dr.Liisa Kauppinen is a prominent Finnish campaigner with an international career advocating the rights of women with disabilities. What links them is that they both live their lives with a disability; Maysoon with cerebral palsy, Liisa with deafness – and both are determined not to let their disability stop them in any way. They’re both guest speakers at an international conference on people with disabilities due to be held today in Vienna. They agreed to speak to BBC Newsday, ahead of the event. The conversation began with Maysoon explaining the importance of gaining leadership as someone living with disability.
Gene editing technologies such as Crispr-Cas9 have the capability to rewrite our DNA and change life as we know it. In this new series, we spoke to people around the UK who could be touched by the new technology.
In this first episode, we look at how DNA and identity interact. Does DNA make us who we are? What if we were to change that? And what does it mean to be different in a world that strives for perfection?
Rita Ebel, 62, has come up with a novel way of helping wheelchair users like herself enjoy their shopping experiences in the western German town of Hanau.
Rita, who has been using a wheelchair since a serious car accident 25 years ago, has been building ramps from Lego and distributing them around town.
Jacqueline du Pre’s career as one of the most gifted and celebrated cellists of the twentieth century was cut short by multiple sclerosis. She was just 42 when she died.
More than three decades later, her life has now inspired a new work by the Royal Ballet. The world premiere has just been held at the Royal Opera House in London.
Claimants who were underpaid employment and support allowance (ESA) when they were transferred from ESA may be owed money by their local council as well as by the DWP.
The underpayments came about because the DWP failed to award income-related ESA to many thousands of claimants who were transferred from incapacity benefit to contribution-based ESA from 2011 onwards.
The DWP has been working its way through 600,000 cases to decide which claimants are owed money.
So far, with the process almost completed, 112,000 claimants have been given arrears payments averaging £5,000 each.
However, the Guardian has reported that many claimants may also have had to pay too much to their local council towards their personal care.
This is likely to happen when councils take into account whether a claimant is receiving premiums, such as the enhanced disability premium, when calculating a claimant’s minimum income guarantee. Claimants with premiums have their minimum income guarantee set at a higher level and thus have to contribute less of their benefits towards their personal care.
Enfield Council has sent letters to around 200 residents who it believes may have been overcharged for care as a result of the DWP’s error.
However, many other councils are either unaware of the issue or are reluctant to take any action to put money back in claimants’ pockets.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) said patients risked missing out on treatments because of the problem.
It warned that relying on others to read documents for them was a breach of medical confidentiality.
The Scottish government said it expected health boards to provide accessible information.
Report author Laura Jones said there was danger blind or partially-sighted people could miss appointments or fail to fully understand their treatment.
“This can put patients at risk of missing treatment as well as being confused or misinformed about their healthcare needs,” she said.
“The NHS itself puts great emphasis on the cost, in money and time, of missed appointments to over-burdened clinics. So giving patients accessible information makes sense.”
Ken Reid, who has been blind for more than 30 years, said he often found the system frustrating.
“I had to go in for an operation. All the materials about the operation were in print. I didn’t know what was going to happen, didn’t know how long it was going to take. I didn’t know anything about it,” he said.
“But what was most critical was that afterwards, when I was sent home, I was given a paper document that told me what I was supposed to do to look after myself.
“I got an infection I and am pretty sure that was because I had no idea how to care for my wound. I was doing what I thought was right but it didn’t seem to be good enough.
“I couldn’t read the information that was provided to me.”
Mr Reid found a lack of consistency between different medical departments. One understood he preferred to receive communication by email, but another – ironically ophthalmology – would still send letters.
“I got sent letters and had to get someone to read it aloud to me. So they knew immediately what is happening to me in my health. That is totally unacceptable and makes me angry,” he said.
Other patients have reported being sent letters requesting confirmation of appointments which meant they could be sent to the bottom of waiting lists for not replying.
The report is published almost 10 years since the passing of patient rights legislation which stated: “You have the right to be given information about your care and treatment in a format or language that meets your needs.”
It found that some patients were still not informed they could request information in alternative formats, while others were bluntly told they could cope without one. Some lacked confidence to request accessible formats.
Increasingly, healthcare information is being communicated online, the report notes.
But the report author said levels of digital uptake can be significantly lower for people with disabilities.
“Visual barriers such as inconsistent font-sizes prevent blind and partially sighted people from accessing information with ease. And while there have been advances in screen-reading software, such supportive technology can be expensive,” she said.
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We are clear that blind and partially sighted people should absolutely get healthcare information in accessible formats.
“NHS boards are responsible for delivering this information and we expect all boards to follow the Charter of Patient Rights, which stipulates that everyone should have access to information and services in a way appropriate to their needs.
“The charter was revised and strengthened last summer and we wrote to all boards to remind them of their responsibilities under it.”
Many of the two million people due to be moved from ESA onto universal credit (UC) will struggle to claim the new benefit, the Salvation Army has warned in a report published last week.
Researchers for the Salvation Army found that 85% of their users struggled to complete a UC claim.
42% said that mental health issues were the main reason they had problems claiming UC.
The Salvation Army is warning that there is now overwhelming evidence that unless the Government provide more support for people to apply, vulnerable people will struggle to access their benefits. Millions could be left unable to buy food, pay their rent, and take care of their children.
Rebecca Keating, Director of Employment Services at The Salvation Army said: “Rolling out Universal Credit in its current form will steamroll vulnerable people into poverty but the Government has time to turn this around by accepting our recommendations and making it easier to apply.
“Millions of people need extra support accessing a computer or understanding how to fill in complicated online forms. It is these vulnerable people who also claim Employment Support Allowance (ESA), a benefit for those who need extra help to get back into work. Over two million people are currently claiming ESA and are due to be moved onto Universal Credit. Our research shows that many of them are going to struggle to access a system that is complicated, bureaucratic and digital by default.”
One claimant interviewed by the Salvation Army was a 36 year old father who told them:
“I suffer from anxiety and depression and have been coming to The Salvation Army’s foodbank since I was put on Universal Credit two years ago. It’s really tough and I’ve been sanctioned for missing appointments when I was ill. I’ve also been sanctioned for not looking online for work, but I don’t have access to the internet now because I had to pawn my laptop and my phone to get money to look after my kids.”
The Salvation Army’s recommendations include:
Better identification of vulnerable people and those with mental health issues so they have tailored support to move onto Universal Credit.
Investment to ensure smaller caseloads for Jobcentre Work Coaches so they have more time to properly identify and support clients who need extra help.
More partnership working between Jobcentres and organisations like The Salvation Army, which has expertise in helping vulnerable people into work, including digital and budgeting support.
Interviewing an artist who can’t speak is an unusual, almost meditative experience. I am in a small town outside Toulouse in south-western France to meet Pone, a beatmaker who helped shape the sound of French hip-hop in the 1990s. As part of Marseille’s seminal group Fonky Family, he produced hits such as Art De Rue, Sans Rémission and the hair-raising Mystère et Suspense, as well as 113’s hypnotic single Hold Up. But we are here to discuss Kate & Me, an instrumental beat album created as an ode to Kate Bush, and the first album in history to be entirely produced through an eye-tracking device.
The silence in Pone’s bedroom is punctuated by the amplified sound of a breathing machine, his torso slowly moving up and down under a blanket, and the playful mewing of his daughters downstairs. Every so often, his wife, Wahiba, stands up from the couch at the sound of her husband’s computerised voice. “Eyes, please,” is a request to soothe his eyes with sterilised pads.
Pone, whose real name is Guilhem Gallart, is living with motor neurone disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the devastating and incurable illness that disrupts the control of all the body’s muscles. Pone is irreversibly paralysed, confined to bed and unable to move anything but his eyes, his link to others only made possible through technology. But his mind, trapped inside his unresponsive body, functions as it always used to: bursting with ideas. His situation evokes that of Jean Dominique-Bauby, the fashion editor who lived with locked-in syndrome following a major stroke and wrote the memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly using technology controlled by the movements of his eyes.
Pone’s survivor spirit doesn’t do self-pity. Besides Kate & Me, he recently created ALS for Dummies, a self-published book that collects his articles about this unjustly under-represented condition, aimed at sharing vital information with other people who have motor neurone disease. (The ice-bucket challenge of 2014 was intended to raise awareness of the condition.)
The book is written with urgency and humour. Pone ironically refers to 2016 as the year he “won the Mannequin Challenge”; the following year, before a gastrostomy operation – which introduced a hole in his abdomen to enabled him eat – Pone told his doctor: “I’m Muslim, so no pork in the tube feeding, right?” In a recent Facebook post, he thanked his illness for his recent period of creativity. “I would never have done all this if I didn’t get sick,” he wrote. “Thank you ALS, you woke me up!”
To refer to his pre-motor neurone life as sleepy is characteristic of Pone’s humility; his career was far from slumbering. Fonky Family rose to fame in 1994 when they featured on the song Bad Boys de Marseille, by Akhenaton of the group IAM. With its glorious Eddie Kendricks bassline, the voluble MCs’ distinctive Mediterranean accents and the video’s nod to the French Connection drug trade, the song became a summer hit and catapulted the group into the limelight.
Three albums and sold-out tours later, the Fonky Family called it quits. Pone and Wahiba married and moved out of Marseille with their two daughters. In 2014, Pone began to experience trouble walking, and soon found out he had motor neurone disease. The news dropped like a bomb in his family life: nothing could prepare them for the rapidity with which he would become tetraplegic. The worst part was becoming mute. For a while, he could only communicate through a spelling card. Wahiba would patiently run her fingers over the letters, stopping when Pone would blink. Together, they would slowly form sentences. “It was horrible,” Pone remembers.
After watching a documentary on Stephen Hawking, who also had motor neurone disease, Pone’s family were inspired to research speech-generating devices. They tracked down the software Hawking himself had created, and soon Pone had a screen permanently placed in front of him, under which a small device mapped his gaze precisely. This eye-tracking technology, Wahiba says, is “open to anyone; some geeks use it just for the hell of it”. Thanks to this tool, Pone could start to write sentences that his computer would read out loud. His melodious southern French accent was lost in the process, but it was enough to translate his thoughts to the outer world.
The relief Pone felt was huge, but it was bittersweet. French state healthcare doesn’t make information about eye-tracking technology readily available, nor does it cover the costs, a fact that he and Wahiba vehemently criticise. State-funded centres for motor neurone disease, he says, “are totally out of the loop”, forcing many concerned families to find makeshift solutions. My own family experienced this reality first-hand; my mother was locked-in due to multiple sclerosis. A website such as ALS for Dummies, written by patients for patients, could have changed her life.
By early 2019, Pone had acclimatised to his new life and felt the urge to make music again. With Ableton Live installed on his computer, he began to use his eyes to operate like a mouse: he could do everything he used to, just at a slower pace. He was so energised by this new possibility that he decided to work with material by Kate Bush, an artist he first heard on samples in the late 90s and had long worshipped for her “singular originality and own sampling work with Peter Gabriel”, he says. “And her voice, of course.”
Pone embarked on creating Kate & Me from his bed. Patiently working with his cat on his lap, he distorted and extended Bush’s vocal in Wuthering Heights for his opening track. He recorded the sound of his own breathing machine and interlaced it with the melody and powerfully symbolic lyrics of her song Breathing. He weaved piano samples from Bush’s back catalogue with echo-drenched rap vocals, putting her in eerie conversations with artists such as Jay-Z, Styles P and Biggie Smalls.
The result is an emotional, spacious record with a sci-fi quality. With trademark optimism, Pone says he “wasn’t limited” while producing it. “Rather the opposite. I was able to try new techniques. Before, it was way more immediate; now the process is really slow, but I use this time to properly think about the music.” I am intrigued by the final song, the 30-minute Loin de Tout ça: an icy, cavernous and seemingly endless vocal taken from Under the Ivy, the B-side to Bush’s 1985 single Running Up That Hill: “When we work, us beatmakers, we often hear the same loop for hours,” says Pone. “It really transforms our perception of sound, it immerses you in a different world. This is why I extended the track so much. This is the experience I wanted to share.”
In August last year, Pone finished Kate & Me and released it online for free (a physical version is now available in France). When he’s not imparting his encyclopaedic knowledge of soul, US and French rap in carefully written blogposts, he is actively promoting Kate & Me on social media – to an awestruck response.
If the real success of Kate & Me is how it represents the possibilities for people living with motor neurone disease, the recognition also has fuelled Pone’s ambition to work with MCs again. When I ask him if he has any projects on the go, his smiling eyes confirm my guess. “I have a passion project with another old fart like me,” he says. He dreams of collaborating with Drake or A$AP Rocky. What about Bush herself? He hopes she isn’t too upset that he took liberties with her work, but he doubts whether she has listened to the album. “It seems like she’s untraceable. She’s probably making marmalade in the depths of the Scottish Highlands.” Pone, meanwhile, is making lemonade from life’s lemons.
Disabled and chronically ill benefit claimants who were left thousands of pounds out of pocket by a government error may have also been overcharged by their local authorities for social care, it has emerged.
At least 110,000 benefit claimants were underpaid an average of £5,000 following a botched overhaul of incapacity benefits which began in 2011, according to the latest figures.
The error occurred when Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials transferred people from older benefits on to the wrong kind of employment support allowance (ESA), meaning they missed out on premium payments they were eligible for.
The Guardian understands that, as a knock-on effect, the error will have skewed financial assessments many councils undertake to determine how much these claimants should have contributed towards their social care costs.
Pat Sawh, 65, has received a refund of more than £2,000 from Enfield council, in north London, which is believed to be the first to begin addressing this issue. Her sons Stephen, 31, and Kris, 29, both have autism, while Stephen also has epilepsy and multiple allergies.
“Both my sons still live at home and my husband and I are pensioners,” she said. “This extra money is helping them a lot – without it they could not do as much.”
Wendy Berry, 75, helps run a group for carers of learning disabled adults in Enfield and helped Sawh bring her case to the attention of the council.
“The problem with this issue is that councils probably do not even realise that the DWP error had an impact on social care charging. It is very complicated. We suspect that very few councils have really thought about it,” she said.
“Charging for social care is always a difficult area because it takes money from the disability benefits paid to the most vulnerable people, who need support to live in their own homes. To ensure people are paying what they are supposed to be paying is critical.”
Enfield council has since sent letters to other residents it suspects have been affected by this issue, which could number as many as 200 people, according documents seen by the Guardian.
In 2014, local authorities gained the power to introduce charges to recoup costs they incur from contracting care and support services. These charges are typically deducted from the benefits of people receiving social care.
Councils who charge must conduct financial assessments to ensure that they do not cause a person’s income to drop below the statutory minimum set by the Department of Health (pdf), although they also have discretion to have more generous charging rules.
Many, though not all, councils now charge for adult social care. Among the factors considered when calculating a person’s minimum income guarantee is whether they are receiving a premium, such as the enhanced disability premium.
Those who, like the Sawhs, missed out on premiums because the DWP transferred them on to the wrong type of ESA, may have had a reduced minimum income guarantee. As a result, they may have been overcharged for care by their local authority.
While the DWP has compensated those who missed out on premiums – to the tune of £5,000 on average – there appears to have been no government effort to address this knock-on effect.
Marsha de Cordova, the Labour MP and disability rights campaigner, said: “This is a scandal. It is a responsibility of the DWP to ensure that all local authorities are compensating or refunding any ill or disabled persons affected.
“I would worry for the ill and disabled people that have fallen into debt, destitution or poverty because of this error by the DWP.”
Kamran Mallick, Disability Rights UK’s chief executive, said: “Now that the DWP have finally recognised the thousands of disabled people who have been underpaid ESA, we urge local authorities to refund the overpaid charges for social care that have been paid by many of these same disabled people.
“It’s monstrous that many of the poorest people in our society have faced a double whammy of not receiving their full entitlement and being hit by social care overcharging.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We have worked hard to ensure that all those entitled to ESA receive the benefits they are entitled to.
“We urge anyone who believes their social care payments may have been affected by this issue to contact their local council.”
Figures released last month revealed that 5,000 people died before they could be reimbursed for the DWP’s ESA error.
Actor George Robinson reveals what it’s like to play Isaac, the first disabled character in Netflix’s Sex Education.
George became tetraplegic just a few years ago when he broke his neck in a school rugby tackle gone-wrong.
The question is, did he watch the show – full of teenage sex, angst and mishaps – with his parents?
Professional magician Fergus Flanagan first got into tricks when he was 10-years-old – about the same time he realised he was different to everyone else.
He’d started to experience intrusive thoughts relating to hitting or kicking disabled people – something he never acted on and which has since gone away.
But it would be another 10 years before hetold anyone about it and it was given a name – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – something he’s now created a magic show around.
The DWP has gone back on an undertaking it gave to review a total of 1.6 million PIP claims after it lost two court cases in 2016 and 2017, a report released by the department today reveals. Many claims will not be reviewed, the number of back payments is likely to be less than a twentieth of the original estimate and the cost a tiny fraction of what was expected.
The cases in question were known as RF, which related to carrying out activities safely, and MH which related to the mobility component of PIP and overwhelming psychological distress.
“We will be going through all cases in receipt of PIP and all decisions made since the judgment in MH to identify anyone who may be entitled to more as a result of the judgment . . . This will be a complex exercise and of considerable scale, as we will be reconsidering approximately 1.6 million claims. Whilst we will be working at pace to complete this exercise it is important that we get it right.”
However, the DWP have now revealed that since 4 November 2019 “the department has been focusing reviews on those cases most likely to benefit. All other cases in scope of this exercise will be contacted by the department in writing, giving them the opportunity to request a review.”
In other words, rather than reconsidering each case as they said they would, the DWP are now leaving it up to hundreds of thousands of claimants to decide whether they believe that complex changes to eligibility criteria affected them or not.
If they think they have been affected it will then be up to them to ask the DWP to look at their award again.
Given the fear that many people have of the DWP taking away their benefits, it is likely that many people will have absolutely no desire to have their award reviewed, even if they are assured that they will not have it cut as a result.
However, the latest figures show that with over half of all PIP claims having been considered, fewer than 6,000 claimants have received a payment as a result and back payments have totalled just £28 million.
The full figures are:
around 720,000 cases have been checked against the MH decision
around 820,000 cases have been cleared against the RJ decision
Most of these cases have been checked against both decisions.
Around 5,900 payments have been made:
3,400 for MH cases, totalling £17 million, so an average of around £5,000 per claimant
2,500 for RJ cases, totalling £11 million, so an average of around £4,400 per claimant
Fewer than 100 claimants have received payments for both
With more than half of all claims having been checked and many of the rest destined never to be checked, the number of awards looks likely to be less than a twentieth of the 220,000 that the DWP originally estimated. Whilst some of that number would be people who had yet to make a claim in 2018, future claimants are unlikely to have been such a high proportion of the total by 2023.
And the cost of back payments so far is less than 1% of the original estimated cost of the process.
In the absence of any explanation for the huge differences in the outcome of the review so far, it would be hard not to suspect that something underhand has taken place.
When a spinal cord injury meant Vickie Simmonds had to start using a wheelchair, she rediscovered her love for dancing.
With the help of her best friend Amanda, who is able-bodied, she spent a year in the dance studio choreographing routines that could be danced in a wheelchair.
The pair then decided to establish their own inclusive dance company in Winchester, Hampshire, that enables people of all ages and abilities to dance together.
They now want to buy additional wheelchairs that would allow more people to take part in the classes, even if they aren’t wheelchair users.
The University of Hull has launched an investigation after a disabled student shared a photo on Twitter showing how its lecture theatres are inaccessible for wheelchair users.
The photo shows Sarah-Marie Da Silva, a zoology student, sitting in the doorway of a lecture theatre which has no accessible ramp allowing her proper access to the room. She added in another Tweet: “As a wheelchair user, I don’t have any option … most days I don’t even have a desk.”
Da Silva told the Tab that the university has repeatedly failed to accommodate her disability.
The incident occurred last Friday, when she ended up stuck in the corner of the stairwell after realising there was no means for her to get down into the room.
“I turned and saw the stairs and panicked, I stopped,” she told the Tab. “The next 10 minutes was people arriving, them looking at me and then sometimes asking what was going on. I just told them I can’t get down and to just go past me.”
The first-year student said the problems started with her first lecture in September, in a lecture theatre where access to the room was at floor level.
“Everyone walked up the stairs to take their seats and I was left with nowhere to go – no desk, no seats next to me for other students and I’m right next to the lecturer. I was made to feel like an ‘other’,” she said.
Da Silva told the Tab she had raised the issue “countless times”. But the student added that, while the university had made room changes for some of her lectures, she still repeatedly found they were held in inaccessible spaces.
“A lot of the time there are no desks for me. If there are, they’re moveable desks, but the wheels are always locked and I can’t bend down that far to unlock them, so everyone in the theatre looks on at me whilst I struggle to get a desk,” she told the Tab.
Dr Anji Gardner, Hull’s Director of Student Services, said: “We’re very sorry that this has happened, clearly it is not acceptable. We take these matters very seriously and are looking into what has happened.
“We are committed to working with our students to put in place any additional support or adjustments where needed. Unfortunately, it is clear this hasn’t happened in this case. We will immediately look into this and ensure that we take necessary steps to make sure this does not happen again.”
Piers Wilkinson, disabled students’ officer, for the National Union of Students, said: “Universities across the sector are still consistently failing to provide basic access for disabled students. Disabled students deserve inclusive access to the entire university experience, and that starts with being able to get into our lectures.”
Victoria Bell is at the start of an overnight “sleep-in” shift, caring for two people with learning disabilities in a house in Doncaster.
A long-running battle over care-workers’ pay will reach the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Victoria, 23, is very clear the work she does should be better valued and better paid.
She gets the minimum wage for the nights she sleeps in – but many workers on similar shifts are paid a much lower flat rate.
“People say, ‘Oh, you actually sleep at work?’
“You do sleep sometimes but you’re always at work. It’s not like you can get up and leave to go anywhere else.”
She shows the staff bedroom – small, with plain walls, a single bed and filing cabinets.
“We’ve got a phone there in case there is an emergency and the service users bedrooms are just next door.”
There are alarms in their rooms and once one goes off “you’re awake for them”, she says.
Back pay
Unions argue all care staff should receive the minimum wage for night shifts even if they are asleep.
One of the two cases being considered by the Supreme Court is against Mencap, the learning disability charity.
Thousands of workers will be affected and organisations providing care fear if they lose, they could be liable for millions of pounds in back pay, which they say they cannot afford.
Philip Bartey who runs Autism Plus, Victoria’s employer, says its bill alone could be £2.5m
“The funds are not there,” he says.
Mr Bartey says the squeeze is due to councils and the NHS not paying care companies the minimum wage for providing sleep-in care at the homes of older or disabled people who might need help.
Unison brought the legal action on behalf of a Mencap care worker paid less than £30 for working a shift from 22:00 to 07:00.
She was expected to keep a “listening ear” out in case the people she was there to support needed help, otherwise she could sleep.
Over 16 months, she was called on six times at night, receiving no extra money for the first hour she was disturbed, although after that she was paid at the full day-time rate.
The High Court ruled even when she was asleep she was entitled to the minimum wage for the shift.
That was overturned in the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court will be expected to settle the matter once and for all.
‘Chronically underfunded’
Mencap says it now ensures staff are paid the minimum wage for sleep-in shifts.
“We would dearly like to pay our hard-working colleagues more,” the charity says.
But it is defending the case, it says, as, if the Court of Appeal ruling is overturned, tax officials will expect it and other care providers to pay care workers past and present six years of back pay, which “would run into hundreds of millions”.
Mencap says such a bill could make the care they provide unviable and wants the government to step in,” the charity says.
“Social care is chronically underfunded and many providers are warning that this could tip them into insolvency.
“If back pay is owed, we believe the government should pay it.”
TUC head of employment rights Kate Bell says: “Governments for a long time have been talking about sorting the social-care crisis.
“This is the point where they really have to step in and help out.
“We just can’t have the situation where we’re saying either low paid workers don’t get paid or people don’t get the vital care they need. That’s not tenable.”
A spokeswoman said the government would pay “close attention” to the outcome of the case.
She added: “Workers in the sector should be fairly rewarded for what they do and we encourage employers to pay more than the minimum wage where possible; we hope more care-sector employers will consider doing so.”
“The Deaf Community needs inspiration and aspiration from within and without to make meaningful and long-lasting change”, according to Abdi Gas, founder ofDeaf Unity, a leading Deaf charity.
Deaf pupils in England arestruggling ‘at every stage of their education‘ according to the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS). Furthermore,government reportingin 2017 found that only ‘65% of working age deaf people are in employment, compared to 79% of the general population’. The true impact of these statistics on Deaf people’s wellbeing is clear; with mental health concerns affecting ‘up to 50%, compared to 35% for the general population.’ Something needs to be done.
This is where the Deaf Future Conference 2020 comes in.
To find out more about and to register, please click on the link below.
Coronation Street has confirmed that Chesney Brown and Gemma Winter’s next big storyline will begin next week, as they learn that their baby son Aled has profound hearing loss.
Chesney (Sam Aston) and Gemma (Dolly-Rose Campbell) are told the news after heading to an important appointment at the hospital with Aled.
Aled is given a hearing test, while Chesney and Gemma wait for news. The audiologist later confirms that Aled has profound permanent hearing loss in both of his ears.
Gemma feels upset over the news, especially when she’s told that Aled has been deaf since birth and has never heard her say that she loves him.
Chesney tries his best to comfort Gemma, promising that he’ll always be by her side and they’ll face any challenges with Aled together.
Chesney pulls Gemma in for a hug, but it’s clear that she feels far from reassured.
Coronation Street bosses have been working with Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Trafford Deaf Children’s Society while developing Aled’s storyline.
The show will explore how Gemma and Chesney cope with the diagnosis and the help which is available for Aled and the family, including hearing assistance equipment
Although Gemma initially finds the news upsetting, there are many positive messages in the storyline in the weeks and months to follow.
A Coronation Street spokesperson recently said: “This is a very important story to tell and will resonate with many parents who have gone through their children being diagnosed with hearing problems and the challenges that this throws up for the child, the parents and the whole family.”
An eight-year-old girl has been home tutored for 20 months because of a lack of disabled toilets in schools.
Imogen Ashwell-Lewis has cerebral palsy and has not been able to find a school with suitable facilities since leaving Rogiet Primary in June 2018.
Monmouthshire council said it was following Welsh Government guidance.
A disability charity said many parents of disabled children felt their youngsters were “a bit of an afterthought”.
Imogen’s mum Catherine Ashwell-Rice, from Caldicot in Monmouthshire, said her daughter left Rogiet Primary after she raised a series of concerns.
These resulted in her bringing a disability discriminatory appeal at a special educational needs tribunal for Wales.
The council said it had worked “with all agencies and Mrs Ashwell-Rice to resolve the situation in 2018”.
But Mrs Ashwell-Rice said she had learnt Rogiet is the only Monmouthshire school with a child accessible disabled toilet – and she has had a 20-month battle to get Imogen into another school.
“Some of the schools were unsuitable because of the physical make up of them,” Mrs Ashwell-Rice said.
“And then we kept going further and further afield until we found schools that were suitable.”
Despite promises adaptations would be made to a number of schools, the situation remained unresolved.
Monmouthshire council is paying for home tuition for Imogen for three hours, four days a week.
Mrs Ashwell-Rice said the last few months been “an emotional rollercoaster” for herself and Imogen.
“Every time we think we’ve got a school and that things are going to move forward, we discover that the adaptations can’t be made, or that we’re promised they’ll be done and they haven’t.
“It’s obviously been really disruptive for Imogen’s education.”
Disability Wales Chief Executive Rhian Davies said it was a familiar tale.
“And despite 25 years of equality legislation, we’re still not getting it right in Wales,” she said.
“We’re still a long way off a fully inclusive education system.”
A Monmouthshire council spokesman said toilets were provided according to Welsh Government design guidance.
“Pupils’ needs are assessed on an individual basis and further adaptations to toilets in disabled facilities are made if necessary,” he said.
The spokesman said an independent mediator was used to try and resolve the situation which led to Mrs Ashwell-Rice withdrawing her complaint to the Disability Discrimination Tribunal.
He said the authority was working closely with Mrs Ashwell-Rice “and other agencies to ensure that Imogen’s needs are fully met in a school setting”.
Pressalit changing shower table. Electrically operated with remote control to adjust height. Never used.
Approx. dimensions:
New one costs: £4K-£6k depending on model.
Asking price – £500
To be collected from North West London. Will need a builder to install it.
For more information please contact Rahila Gupta on rahilagupta@gmail.com.
Callie Lewis, 24, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at a young age and struggled with chronic depression and suicidal thoughts.
In 2018, she travelled to Cumbria after having gone missing and killed herself.
In a post published on the social networking site, Tumblr, Callie wrote about how she longed ‘for a world’ where autistic people could ‘exist happily’ but wasn’t sure this could ever happen.
After reading Callie’s final post on the site, her grandfather wrote a letter in response.
Watch BBC Panorama’s ‘Failed by the NHS: Callie’s Story’ on Monday 10 February at 20:30 GMT.
Welcome to a brand new series on ‘Life of an Ambitious Turtle’ where we’re going to be unlocking doors, challenging stigmas and leaving no stone unturned on an alternative and incredibly rewarding route to parenthood – Fostering!
Wait a minute… Can people with disabilities/medical conditions even apply to be a foster carer in the UK? Every disabled person I have asked assumed you had to be fit as a fiddle or face being denied at the first mention of the D-bomb! It was this mindset I held too, that stopped our family 8 years ago from applying to adopt, despite my parents had encouraged me to go down the adoption path from a very young age rather than have my own children due to the complexity pregnancy would hold with Muscular Dystrophy. My fiance and I simply assumed like so many others, we wouldn’t stand a chance and went…
Families and campaigners have demanded a public inquiry after a government watchdog found that at least 69 suicides could have been linked to problems with benefit claims over the last six years.
Amid anger from the loved ones of some of those who took their lives in circumstances where difficulties with the Department of Work and Pensions played a role, the National Audit Office (NAO) report said that the true number of deaths linked to claims could be far higher.
And it said that until recently the DWP had failed to actively seek information from coroners and families, or investigate all of the cases that were reported to it.
The government watchdog warned that although the DWP said it regarded the internal investigations as a way of improving the safety and quality of its services, it had admitted that it has no idea whether lessons from the reviews were ever learned or their recommendations ever implemented.
Joy Love, the mother of Jodey Whiting, a disabled parent with a history of mental illness who took her life three years ago after her benefits were stopped, told the Guardian that without a full public inquiry into benefit-related deaths there was a danger that “nothing will change and these tragedies would keep happening”.
The NAO undertook the investigation last year after the former MP Frank Field – at the time the chair of the work and pensions select committee – wrote to it to complain that the DWP had blocked his requests for data on suicide-related deaths on the grounds that to gather the information would be too expensive.
Field, no longer a serving member of parliament since December’s general election, said: “This report presents a catastrophic situation for vulnerable claimants and their families. What we need now is a full investigation into the DWP’s processes, and for the necessary changes to be made, so that nobody is ever put into this situation again.”
Labour’s shadow disability minister, Marsha De Cordova, also called for an independent inquiry and accused the DWP of a lack of respect for parliamentary scrutiny. She said: “This is heartbreaking, and families who have been affected deserve answers and all the support we can give them.”
A DWP spokesperson acknowledged the NAO’s findings and said that it took them “extremely seriously”. “Suicide is a devastating and complex issue,” the spokesperson said. “We are urgently working to drive forward improvements and learn the lessons from these tragic cases. We will now carefully consider the NAO’s findings as part of our ongoing work.”
The DWP has promised a review aimed at improving its responses to benefit-related deaths, and has plans to set up a Serious Case Panel to investigate the most complex cases. However, this has already run into criticism for failing to involve the families of claimants.
Concern over deaths of vulnerable benefit claimants, often after benefits were withdrawn, leaving them stressed and penniless, has been growing in recent months. Of nine such cases in recent years known to the Guardian, suicide was identified as the formal cause of death.
Last week the Guardian reported the death by starvation in 2018 of Errol Graham, a 57-year-old grandfather with a history of mental illness. Graham died months after his benefits were cut off after he failed to attend a fit-for-work test. A candlelit vigil and protest over Graham’s death was held in Nottingham on Friday night.
Alison Turner, Graham’s daughter-in-law, added her voice to calls for a public inquiry saying she had little confidence in the DWP’s ability to change its ways. “They are going to have to work hard to earn our trust, and they have to start by being open and honest with people.”
The NAO’s report published on Friday reveals that 69 internal process reviews (IPRs) into claimant suicides where “alleged department activity” may have contributed to the claimant’s death have been completed by the DWP since 2014-15. The figure does not include benefit-related deaths which were not a result of suicide.
Of the 69, almost a third were carried out in a seven-month period between April and November last year, reflecting a more proactive approach from the department under former work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd. “This is partly a result of investigating more cases where information received from the media was the trigger [for the investigation],” the NAO said.
However, because there was no clear route for such cases to be communicated to the department, and because there was confusion internally as to whether a reported case should be investigated, it is likely incidents that should have been investigated will have slipped under the radar, the NAO says.
“It is highly unlikely that the 69 cases the department has investigated represents the number of cases it could have investigated in the past six years,” it concludes.
The IPRs do not come to a judgment as to whether benefits-related issues were the cause of the suicide, but instead scrutinise departmental processes and “identify recommendations for change to the customer journey”, which are then in theory passed on to frontline teams.
However, the NAO notes there was no systematic tracking or monitoring of the lessons that emerge from the IPRs. “As a result, the department does not know whether the suggested improvements are implemented.”
The DWP does not seek to identify wider trends that emerge from across the IPR reports, the NAO notes, and the reports themselves are restricted internally. This means “systemic issues which might be brought to light through these reviews could be missed”.
Michael Paul from Disability Rights UK said: “We hear repeatedly about improvements to processes. But the stark reality appears very different. It’s yet more evidence that the welfare benefits system is unfit for purpose. The system should be supporting disabled people who need it, not putting them at risk.”
Kenya as a country pretend to have policies of addressing disability, but they are functional. We have International rights for the disabilities, But people concern (Disabled) have no information. The community that lives with people living with disabilities don’t have the information. 1) Severe disabilities who are still locked in houses. 2) We still have discrimination employment with people with disability. 3) Disability education is very expensive in Kenya. 4) Supportive assistive, equipment are very expensive in fact we depend on donation from outside. 5) Life: generally people living with disability in Kenya, nationally don’t have houses. – Those married are really mistreated whether men or women. So their children have problems being moved here and there. So our needs are: i) To create awareness and empowerment on rights and policies of the disabilities. ii) We need to source for school fees for disabled persons. iii) We need to acquire supportive equipments iv) We need to create economic empowerment for people with disabilities so that they can create small project so that they can help themselves. To address all these we need strong support and network and collaborate with individual, national, regional and international donor funding. UHAI COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT FORUM (UHAI CEF) MOSES OMUKUNDA MAKACHIA PHONE: +254795512492 EMAIL: cefuhai@yahoo.com
The International Paralympic Committee says it is “encouraged and confident” about preparations for the Tokyo Paralympics, despite the threat of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
The IPC discussed coronavirus at a meeting in Tokyo and said the disease had not caused any problems yet.
Bosses of the Tokyo Olympics have said they are “seriously concerned” about the impact coronavirus may have.
The Paralympics will take place from 25 August to 6 September.
“The outbreak of coronavirus so far has had minimal impact on Games preparations,” said an IPC spokesman.
The IPC says it will follow the lead of the World Health Organisation and monitor the situation carefully over the next few months.
According to the latest figures, the outbreak has killed 565 people and infected 28,018. All but one of the deaths were in China.
“We are encouraged that Tokyo 2020 has established an internal taskforce on what measures may need to be taken should this virus continue into the summer,” added the spokesman.
“We are also fully reassured that the relevant Japanese authorities, as well as the WHO, will take all necessary measures to address the ongoing situation.
“What is important now is that we put this outbreak into perspective in terms of cases and try to calm people’s fears.
“Fear spreads much faster than any virus and currently, according to the WHO, there are less than 200 reported cases outside of China.”
More than 4,000 athletes will come to the Japanese capital to compete in 22 sports at the 16th edition of the Games.
I am a lawyer and represent those who have suffered a brain injury. Through my charity work, I attend monthly meetings with brain injury survivors. Something I hear most often is their complaints of fatigue. ‘It is so much more than just being tired’ is the general consensus, and I can see their frustration at how their symptoms are so often downplayed as just being ‘tiredness’.
The brain is the powerhouse of our body, responsible for all our actions. So when it is damaged, it can cause a multitude of changes, both obvious and subtle. It can affect everything from your ability to perform daily tasks to changing your personality. Every case is different, and with advances in medicine and neuro-rehabilitation, significant recovery can be achieved. However fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of brain injury. So what is it, and what can be done to help those who are suffering?
‘Normal’ fatigue and pathological fatigue – the difference
‘Normal’ fatigue is exhaustion which can be quickly remedied with rest. It can affect anyone, is usually time specific and is caused by a particularly strenuous physical or mental activity.
Pathological fatigue refers to persistent, prolonged or chronic exhaustion which can limit the sufferer for hours or days. It’s debilitating, and can affect a person’s mental ability, not just physical capability.
Why does it occur after a brain injury?
There’s no definitive answer on what causes fatigue after a brain injury.
Certainly, damage to parts of the brain which control our ability to think, be alert and move is thought to play a big causative role. The degree of injury to the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS), thalamus, hypothalamus and cerebral cortex can all dictate the extent of fatigue suffered by survivors.
However, fatigue can also be caused, or worsened, by other secondary factors brought on by a brain injury. This can range from the neuropsychiatric effects of anxiety and depression, to fractured sleeping to cognitive impairments, which can affect processing speeds and memory. All of these can make it much more difficult, and more of an effort, to complete any daily tasks – leading to an onset of fatigue.
Becoming overly emotional, anxious, irritable or impatient.
Effects of Fatigue
Fatigue is an all-consuming condition which can affect every aspect of your daily life. Often, it can come on suddenly or with little warning. The effects can be unpredictable, sometimes being short-lived and other times lasting days. Coping techniques also differ from person to person, unfortunately there is no one ‘fix’.
Some people find it difficult to commit to, or fulfil, plans. Others simply know that they can only do so much in a day, before they’re likely to suffer an episode.
This can cause not only difficulties in a person being able to do daily tasks, like shopping and cleaning, but can also lead to complications with relationships, social life and the ability for the person to work. Sadly, those who suffer fatigue can suffer from loss of self-confidence, a loss of independence and social isolation because they are simply unable to fulfil everything they want to, despite their best intentions.
Help from a Legal Claim
My job is to obtain compensation for adults who have suffered a brain injury, either through a medical mistake, or because of an accident or assault that was not their fault.
With a legal claim, clients have access to a team of medical and non-medical experts, all of whom are working to identify the client’s needs and how they can be met. This includes access to specialists who make recommendations regarding therapy, medical treatment, assistive equipment and aids and professional care to help those suffering from fatigue. The cost of this expertise and the recommendations will be recovered from the claim, so our client can focus on getting their life back together without having to worry about the cost of doing so.
A Dutch court has outlawed the use of artificial intelligence to identify possible benefits fraudsters because it violates the human rights of poor and vulnerable claimants. The case will alarm the DWP which is investing heavily in robot technology.
The bots include artificial intelligence systems which are designed to judge whether claims for benefits are truthful.
Hiding beneath a cloak of commercial confidentiality, the DWP are refusing to reveal details of how the bots make their decisions, including what information they hold about claimants.
However, faced with similar technology and a similar lack of transparency, a Dutch court has held that the system may be discriminating on the basis of socioeconomic or migrant status and is therefore a breach of human rights.
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