This year’s United Nations International Day of People with Disabilities is about inclusion, access and empowerment for people of all abilities. And, 20 years on from the Disability Discrimination Act, I believe that it is crucial that we reflect on what changes and progress has been made. We also need to listen to disabled people, recognising and addressing the challenges many disabled people face.
It is clear that the DDA, which entered the statute books in 1995 and which was succeeded by the Equality Act 2010 five years ago, should mean more disabled people have the opportunities to work and to live full and equal lives. Indeed the act meant that employers were not allowed to treat people differently due to their disabilities, and for the first time they had to be allowed into the workplace. Later the act would also mean that service providers had to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people, like providing extra help and making alterations to premises to allow disabled access.
At the parliamentary event I held to mark IDPD, disabled people told me of the considerable barriers they still face in accessing public buildings, transport and services. Many disabled people also spoke of the need for changes in public perception of disabled people in order to achieve full inclusion. In employment, there remain considerable barriers for disabled people and the disability employment gap currently stands at 30 per cent. The government has a laudable ambition to halve this gap, but with cuts to the ESA Work Related Activity Group of £30 per week, one Job Centre Plus disability adviser to every 600 disabled people and only 68 employers active in the Disability Confident scheme, a lot more needs to be done. My employment of people with disabilities bill, which I published in February this year tried to raise awareness of these issues and proposed measures to monitor the ‘disability employment gap.’
The government’s own impact assessment on the cut to ESA WRAG estimates approximately 500,000 people and their families will be affected the cut to ESA WRAG, but there is no analysis of the impact this will have on the number of disabled people who will be pushed into poverty. We know disabled people are twice as likely to live in persistent poverty as non-disabled people and that 80 per cent of disability-related poverty is caused by extra costs; last year there was a two per cent increase in the proportion of disabled people living in poverty, equivalent to more than 300,000 people.
At the autumn statement and spending review last month, we saw a reversal of previous policy on tax credits cuts, but not on universal credit which is currently being rolled out to replace tax credits. It is estimated that on average disabled people on universal credit will lose £2,000 a year and the government have not stopped cuts affecting 150,000 families with a disabled child who will be affected by the proposal to limit child tax credit to just two children.
Over the last few years the government has treated disabled people appallingly, from the £23.8bn cuts in support to 3.7 million disabled people to the dehumanising and ineffective of work capability assessments for working-age disabled people. I have repeatedly called for a radical overhaul of the WCA. The evidence shows it is not fit for purpose.
The views and experiences of disabled people have to be right at the heart of, not just the overhaul of the WCA, but other aspects of social security policy too. Labour wants disabled people to be able to play a central role in both the development and monitoring of this.
That’s why at the IDPD event I announced the launch of Labour’s Disability Equality Roadshow in 2016, which will allow disabled people across the United Kingdom to voice their opinions about how, as a society, we should be supporting them in the most effective and appropriate ways with our social security system. The roadshow will go out and listen to the concerns of disabled people across the regions and ask them to help define what a social security system for disabled people, fit for the 21st century, should look like.
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Debbie Abrahams is shadow minister for disabled people. She tweets @Debbie_Abrahams
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I’m a martial artist who contracted cronic manic depression due to stress as a firefighter after 13 years service. Pensioned off at just over £6000 PA.
I designed a system for doormen in the mid 90s, passed by Glasgow district licensing board Police. After a meeting they said they would back my system and asked for a copy. I gave them this as I was’nt sure if my health was going again. Glad I did, my health failed spectacularly due to lithium.
My point is, 18 months later, a system for trained doormen was put in place, by some other larger security companies, who had the infrastructure to manage such a system, but had no experience as I, trained in different martial arts, firefighting, safety, first aid.
I also designed a system of passive self defence that I taught in Glasgow from Cardonald college till my health went again. So I, in my severe ill health, have managed to produce 2 complete, new industries.
My payment is distress and torment from ATOS, threatening to put me on the streets.
All information can be checked by witness or documented meeting with the Glasgow License Board.
So, to whom it may concern, I have no comprehension of money as it is based on lies, my wealth lies in my knowledge.
My health relies on a stress free life, (in this day and age), almost impossible for a high stress person.
I have designed an industry that must bring in £millions, it requires people which means a reduction in unemployment, they pay tax, win win for everyone but me.
We are not all “useless feeders” as the government would say, I’m sure I’m not the only person who has been written off by society, but produced something unique or worthwhile.
YOU NEED A NEW WAY OF THINKING, maybe we can help with our madness.
I’m happy to supply more information if it helps people to understand that, those less fortunate do have something to offer.