Disability Living Allowance Victory

Last week there was a big announcement in Parliament regarding the Mobility side of Disability Living Allowance, for people who live in residential care. There are 80,000 disabled people who would be affected by the change, but the government has decided not to do this.

DLA mobility helps disabled people to get out and about and do everyday thing that other people take for granted. Mencap thought it was unfair to take this away from disabled people and tried to make the government change its mind. It helped to hold events in parliament and, along with Leonard Cheshire Disability, asked Lord Low to do an independent review of the government proposal.

Without the work of organisations like Mencap campaigning for the government not to make this change, people might have been left isolated and lonely in their care homes because they wouldn’t be able to visit friends and family, go shopping and have their freedom.

This is great that the government is listening and have changed some part of the DLA. However there are many more changes to the benefits which are worrying for me and other disabled people, for example, the proposals for DLA to be replaced by a Personal Independance Payment (PIP). The new benefit must go to the people who need it and the assessment needs to see every individual disabled person having a fair assessment and needs to be an easy read format for people with a Learning Disability.

Even though I don’t live in a care home, my DLA is important to me because it helps me with the extra cost of having a disability. If I didn’t have my DLA, I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I want to do and be part of my local community.

We need to keep on pushing the Government to do the best for the disabled people and I hope they do listen like they did with DLA mobility.

Best wishes,

Ismail