Bantock Park Walk

Tuesday 22nd May 11.00am

Meeting outside the front of the house, the walk lasts around an hour and we stop for refreshments in the tearooms afterwards.

Lunch at the Nickelodeon

Wednesday May 23rd 12.30pm

Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield. Wolverhampton

We will meet up for lunch at this popular venue. It is good traditional pub grub and will be an enjoyable afternoon with good company and lots of laughs.

If you would like more information about Activeyes or want to join in any of our activities please contact Tim Jukes at the Beacon Centre on 01902 880111 0r email tjukes@beacon4blind.co.uk

A charity is hailing a “tremendous victory” for the rights of disabled people and their children after the Court of Appeal (CoA) today ruled that the size criteria in the housing benefit regulations discriminate against disabled people.

The CoA said the regs were discriminatory, because they do not allow for an additional room to be paid for where a disabled person has a carer, or where two children cannot share a room because of disability.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Henderson said: “I am satisfied that maintenance of the single bedroom rules is not a fair or proportionate response to the discrimination which has been established in cases of the present type, and that the defence of justification therefore fails.”

The court ruled on three separate cases – considered together – in the private rented sector. That of Ian Burnip who has carers 24 hours a day to help him as he is severely disabled. He only got housing benefit for a one bedroom flat, as that was all he was entitled to at the time, but needed a second bedroom for his carers to sleep in overnight.

Source: 24dash.com
Link: http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-05-15-Victory-for-rights-of-disabled-as-Government-loses-spare-room-benefit-case

15th May 2012

Half a million people are set to lose their disability under government plans, it has emerged. The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, said he was determined to introduce radical reforms to disability allowances that could slash the annual cost by £2.24bn.

Around 500,000 people in the UK who receive disability living allowance (DLA) could no longer be eligible for the replacement personal independence payment (PIP) under the plans, which are outlined in a report by the Department for Work and Pensions this month.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Duncan Smith said there had been a 30% rise in the the number of claimants in recent years, with the annual cost of the benefits soon to reach £13bn. Under the reforms two million claimants would be reassessed in the next four years and only those considered to be in need of support able to qualify.

Duncan Smith told the Daily Telegraph: “We are creating a new benefit, because the last benefit grew by something like 30% in the past few years. “It’s been rising well ahead of any other gauge you might make about illness, sickness, disability or for that matter, general trends in society. A lot of that is down to the way the benefit was structured so that it was very loosely defined. Second thing was that in the assessment, lots of people weren’t actually seen.

“Third problem was lifetime awards. Something like 70% had lifetime awards, (which) meant that once they got it you never looked at them again. They were just allowed to fester.”

Duncan Smith defended the reforms which could see people without limbs, including ex-servicemen and women, no longer entitled to disability benefits as their everyday mobility is not undermined by their prosthetic limbs.

Source: Guardian

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/14/disability-benefits-slashed-half-million?intcmp=239

14^th May 2012

Aiming High For Disabled Children Short Breaks FREE Swimming Programme

Are you aged 7-15 years and have a disability?

This could be for you?

Sessions will be fun and enjoyable with an opportunity to learn to swim, parents and carers can go in the water if they wish.

Sessions will be held at Wolverhampton Swimming and Fitness Centre, Planetary Road, Bentley Bridge, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, WV13 3SW

First session Saturday 2nd June 2012 6.00pm – 7.30pm

No previous experience of swimming required and non swimmers are welcome

To sign onto the programme you will need to complete an application form which can be accessed via the website at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/communitydevelopment or calling the community development team on 01902 556220. Spaces are limited so please ensure you pre-book.

Email:community.development@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Web: www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/communitydevelopment

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Scanned by iCritical.

Two local authorities have been criticised by a local government ombudsman after failing to provide adequate services for a 12-year-old girl with multiple disabilities and complex needs.

Lambeth council agreed to pay £10,450 and Surrey council £900 following significant gaps, over a two-year period, in providing the one-to-one physiotherapy required by her statement of special educational needs (SEN). The failure left the girl’s father “uncertain whether, had the treatment been delivered consistently and coherently, his daughter would now be able to walk.”

The girl, Alice*, from Lambeth, has complex needs and severe learning difficulties, as well as epilepsy, visual impairment and mobility difficulties. An SEN tribunal ruled in September 2007 that she was entitled to ‘regular and frequent direct therapy from a qualified physiotherapist for one hour a week,’ and one hour a week hydrotherapy. But the ombudsman found there was a five-month delay before the physiotherapy was provided and a further gap of four months after the therapist left. There was also “a question as to how much hydrotherapy Alice was receiving over this time and concerns that this was not linked to the physiotherapy provision.”

Two years later Alice moved to voluntary foster care in Surrey. Although Surrey council found a school that it said could meet her needs it did not ensure that one-to-one provision was made available in addition to weekly hydrotherapy and daily physiotherapy, as specified in her SEN. This resulted in a further gap in provision of over a year.

The ombudsman found maladministration causing injustice by both Lambeth and Surrey councils.

Source: Community Care

Link: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/02/05/2012/118179/councils-rapped-over-service-failures-for-disabled-girl.htm

2^nd May 2012

The Work Capability Assessment fit-for-work test (WCA) is ignorant of the challenges, barriers and health problems faced by homeless people and treats homeless people inhumanely, says Crisis.Addressing the charity’s annual conference today, Chief Executive Leslie Morphy made these criticisms in response to new research findings. Single homeless people’s experiences of the Work Capability Assessmentfound that an overwhelming 97% of almost 200 homeless and vulnerably housed respondents said they felt “stressed, anxious and worried that their claim would be turned down”. The majority of respondents, 65%, suffered from multiple health conditions.

Homelessness is a significant issue, yet currently invisible within the assessments. Half of respondents felt that the healthcare professional assessing them had a “poor awareness of the impact homelessness had on their lives.” And a similar number thought that the person conducting the assessment had a poor understanding of the complexity of their health issues, individual circumstances and needs.

Leslie Morphy said: “Our findings are clear. The Work Capability Assessment is an inhumane ordeal for someone who is already dealing with the horrors of homelessness and the attendant difficulties that brings. Homeless people are facing stressful and traumatic interviews from assessors who are compelled to carry out a process that ignores the fact that homelessness has a massive effect on individual’s health and fitness for work.”

Lack of faith in the system was underlined by the fact that 40% of those surveyed thought the assessor simply did not believe them and 76% of respondents reported they had appealed the decision. Nationally, £50 million a year is spent on the WCA appeals process, with 40% being found in favour of the client.

The research revealed that outcomes varied greatly on whether the claimants were accompanied to the medical assessments: 86% of those unaccompanied were deemed not to have ‘limited capacity for work’, whereas the figure for those accompanied was 39%. Having someone accompany the claimant to lend moral support, provide further information or clarification clearly helped in ensuring the assessor got a clearer and more accurate picture of their conditions during the assessment.

Source: Crisis press release

Link: http://www.crisis.org.uk/pressreleases.php/503/crisis-fit-for-work-test-inhumane-and-ignorant

3^rd May 2012

Cycling

Aldersley High School

Monday 14th May 11am – 12pm

Try a range of adapted bikes which can either be leg or arm powered. Sessions are run in a safe environment within the school grounds. Sessions are Free and all about having fun.

West Park Walk

Tuesday 15th May.

We meet outside the Tearooms at 11.00am and the walk lasts for approx 45 minutes. It is suitable for all including wheelchair users.

After the walk we normally stop for light refreshments in the Tearooms.

Coffee Morning

Come and meet up for a coffee and a chat on Friday 18th May 10.30am at St Peters House in Exchange Street, Wolverhampton.

If you would like more information about activeyes or want to join in any of our activities please contact Tim Jukes at the Beacon Centre on 01902 880111 or email tjukes@beacon4blind.co.uk

Sorry about the late notice about this program but it is well worth seeing. If you missed the first episode on Thursday the 3rd May 2012 at 12.10am. It is repeated again on line and can also be watched on (BBC iplayer)

This series chronicling events of the 20th century from the perspective of disabled people looks at the experiences of those disabled while fighting for their country in two world wars.

Personal Independence Payments will gradually replace Disability Living Allowance from April 2013, one of the aims being to save 20% of the overall bill.
An initial shortlist, or framework, has been set of 10 potential bidders for the contract to deliver medical services for the DWP, including independent assessments for Personal Independence Payments.
The bidders list includes- Avanta Enterprises, Ingeus Deloitte Limited, APM UK Ltd, Capita Group Plc, G4S Integrated Services (UK) Ltd, Atos Origin, Vertex Ltd, MAXIMUS Employment UK, Reed In Partnership and a voluntary sector company. A4e were not short listed.
Atos have received criticism from claimants for the manner in which the medical assessments for the Work Capability Assessments(WCAs) for ESA have been carried out. Professor Harrington’s 2nd report on the WCA found-
‘… that the WCA is not working as well as it should. There are clear and consistent criticisms of the whole system and much negativity surrounding the process. There is strong evidence that the system can be impersonal and mechanistic, that the process lacks transparency and that a lack of communica-tion between the various parties involved contributes to poor decision making and a higher rate of appeals.`