'Vital disability news the Tories sneaked out while we were distracted by BBC'
It can’t have escaped anyone that last week was a heavy news week, HEAVY. I’m not going to talk about that, though it is important. instead, I want to talk about what the government don’t want us to discuss.
Often when the news is dominated by big stories, it seems that governments and big corporations like to bury the bodies, so to speak. They release what would usually be big stories, such as policy changes or plans that would be detrimental to people, knowing they won’t receive much attention.
As a disabled, queer working-class woman, this is usually when news of changes that would affect me and my communities the hardest is sneaked out.
So of course, what I’m going to do now is highlight everything they don’t want a light shone on.
First up, closing railway station ticket offices - of course, this happened last week and was reported widely. However, they hoped we would be too preoccupied to notice the latest development - the rail Minister has been accused of misleading parliament over train station closures.
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Disability News Service reported that Hugh Merrimen told the Commons that “no currently staffed stations will be unstaffed”. Yet public consultation documents issued by all 13 train companies planning closures show that is not true. At least three train companies will move some stations from being staffed part-time to relying on mobile teams that cover a group of local stations.
Activist Doug Palley has estimated that Northern’s staffed station hours will decrease by 60 per cent under the planned closures, from 10,793 to 4,238 staffed station hours per week.
Subsequently, the Transport Committee has reopened its call for evidence on the impact of ticket office closures on disabled people and will stay open until 16th August. You can submit evidence here.
Next up, the good old DWP! The rumours are circulating again that PIP could be made means tested - meaning you’re only entitled to it if you’re in a low-income household.
Currently, you can claim PIP regardless of your circumstances, as it is not an out-of-work benefit. Instead, it’s supposed to help with extra living costs of being disabled, though it’s nowhere near enough - I get just under £600 a month and Scope estimates the cost to the average disabled person is upwards of £1,000 extra a month.
Currently, PIP isn’t affected by the persons or their household's income but if it were to be means-tested, an estimated 4 million disabled people would lose this safety net.
There were reportedly plans for this in the Autumn budget but following activist pressure it was scrapped - so it looks like we might have to fight again.
Minister for Disabled People Tom Pursglove said in February there were no plans to make it means-tested, but never trust a Tory.
Staying with my favourite (cough) minister, Pursglove was again criticised last week for not including disabled people’s charities in his Disability Action Plan.
The plan is in addition to the National Disability Strategy (we’ll get to that) and will according to the minister focus on “short-term changes that we can make, short-term improvements”.
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But Fazilet Hadi, head of policy for Disability Rights UK, said: “The trouble is that this is not coming from disabled people… It’s not our list of actions.”
This feels very typical of the Tories, making policy for disabled people that makes them look good instead of helping us.
Speaking of which, I now move onto the National Disability Strategy. Last year the High Court ruled that the consultation on the strategy was carried out unlawfully, but that was overturned last week by a technicality. Despite it being listed as an “open consultation by the Disability Unit, it was ruled that this was actually an information-gathering survey.
Justice Laing, one of three Court of Appeal judges involved in the case said the purpose of the survey “was not to enable respondents to respond to proposals but to give the respondents to the Survey the opportunity to influence the future content of the Strategy with information and their views”.
So once again the government has got away with not asking us what we need because of a loophole.
Finally, the government is turning a blind eye to disabled people dying in fires - because it would cost too much to implement escape plans for us.
A Home Office consultation found the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's recommendations would be too costly and impractical to implement. Last week the High Court’s Mrs Justice Stacey ruled that the government were allowed to not implement the Peeps recommendation, after weighing up the fire-safety implications against the costs of delivering it. Basically, it’s too expensive to save us.
The news is very heavy right now but we mustn’t let the dominating stories mean that the government get away with quietly ruining disabled people’s lives even more.
They’re banking on us looking the other way, so we need to keep shining the spotlight on them.
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