Register


  • Share this article

Disability Living Allowance Mobility Component Axed

02 Dec 2010

The following story is about a woman in Dorset. At first glance that's nothing to do with Great Yarmouth. Think again... This particular cut will have an enormous impact upon many people who live in the Borough. Read the article and get involved - there's a meeting tomorrow 10am at the Kings Centre.

A disabled woman in a Dorset care home says the government's scrapping of mobility payments will have a "devastating impact" on her life.

From October 2012, the £49.50 a week "mobility component" of the Disability Living Allowance, for some care home residents and children, will be axed.

Wendy Tiffin, 44, lives at The Grange residential home in Poole, which is run by the Leonard Cheshire charity.

The 44-year-old, who uses a wheelchair, said she would lose her independence.

Ms Tiffin moved from her Yeovil home into The Grange two years ago after her 75-year-old mother found she could not take care of her anymore.

She told BBC Radio Solent: "I have to provide my own wheelchair and I literally will not be able to afford to maintain it or, when it wears out, buy a new one.

"I will literally be stuck because I have not got the money to afford any local transport.

"They need to reverse that decision to give everybody back their lifeline."

The move, announced in the Spending Review in October as part of government plans to tackle the national deficit, is likely to affect thousands of disabled people.

The government says people in residential care will get the financial help they need and has promised to "protect the vulnerable".

But many disabled people have serious doubts.

Conservative MP for Poole, Robert Syms, told BBC Radio Solent: "I will be taking up the concerns of the residents at Leonard Cheshire with Maria Miller, who is a minister, to see if we can have a look at what is being proposed."

Thirty-seven MPs have also signed an early day motion calling for the decision to be reversed.

Douglas Alexander MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has described the move as "a punitive measure that could leave people in care homes more isolated".

Content from BBC


Comments


WENDY TIFFIN - Dec 10, 2010
I live in a care home and the only income we get is £22 per week pocket money and then the DLA Mobility Component. The Mobity Component in most cases in the home is used for transport fees. We have to pay 60 pence per mile so as my mother lives in Yeovil, the mobiliy component just about pays the transport fees to go home. at Christmas. There was no care homes for young people in the Yeovil area so I had to look into Dorset were I found my present home. The money is also used to provide a wheelchair and also to maintain it as the NHS will not provide me with one, and a wheelchair costs alot of money so any spare cash is used for this. Without this, how can I afford a wheelchair.

WENDY TIFFIN
D.L.A. Cuts - Dec 2, 2010
As someone who has worked for many years in social care with adults with learning and physical disabilities, I welcome the cuts in D.L.A. This benefit has been abused for many years, and lets not forget it is a benefit not a right. Having seen first hand how the mobility allowance has been used NOT to enhance the life of the disabled person it is meant for but used instead to provide a 'family' vehicle for the main carers...usually the parents. These parents seem to think it is the states job, i.e taxpayers, to provide an income for their adult disabled children. I would like to know why as a taxpayer I have to go out to work so they can have an income which in a lot of cases is far more than anything I can hope to earn and I have four part time jobs to provide for myself and my children. I know of homes where the disabled 'child' is the parents 'job'. their source of income, and in many cases they are able to afford a better lifestyle than some people in employment. And is it really fair to the disabled themselves to have to live with elderly parents far beyond the age that most of us would have left and set up our own homes, where is their choice? I think that if you take away the benefits then hopefully it will not be such a financially attractive proposition to keep their children at home. The most vulnerable and needy in our society will always be taken care of but it is way beyond time the system was overhauled and the families who have had an easy ride, because they have chosen to keep their adult disabled child at home had to assume the same responsibilty that the rest of do.

Angela Norton

Join

to Contribute


Register or Login

To add comments to this page



Menu

Browse pages





Back To Top