Following on from the end of my post last week about the extent of the cuts to the disabled, this is going to be again, a fairly political post, but one that links to an experience that tends to be fairly common amongst disabled people, and that is not being listened to.
1) Some Context
I mentioned at the end of my last post about how hard this government has hit the disabled. A while back, I also wrote a post on OxPolicy giving a more detailed outline of current government policies on this matter. That post can be found in its original form here, and here is a (rather lengthy) excerpt:
Looking at the specific policy changes, the most significant is the transition of Incapacity Benefit to the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The change to ESA was originally introduced by the previous government, and has been pushed aggressively by this one. This involves the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) carried out by ATOS. This assessment has been the cause of multiple controversies, with nearly 40% of appeals being overturned, and the tests being ruled as discriminatory against those with mental health issues. The Spartacus report on the WCA has a number of stories from both claimants and MP’s of all sides that demonstrate the cruelty of the system and the pain it inflicts on those reliant upon it, including suicides as a result of stress and destitution and people dying almost immediately after having been found fit to work, despite them clearly having no capacity to do so.
Secondly, there is the “bedroom tax”, officially the removal of the spare room subsidy. This has significant consequences for disabled people who rely on carers or who have adapted homes and specialist equipment such that they need more than one bedroom. While the government consistently states that disabled people who need an extra room will not have to pay any extra, this is not the case. This is because the funding provided for Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP), is simply not enough to cover all disabled people who require extra room. If the DHP was spread evenly amongst the disabled hit by the bedroom tax, it would come to £2.09 a week, a far cry from the £14 hit those affected from the bedroom tax take. Further, DHP was never intended as a long-term rent rebate, it was designed to help the poorest with income shocks, and payments last at longest, 12 weeks. As a result, many disabled people are cutting back on food, bills, and even medication in order to be able to keep a roof over their head. Despite being repeatedly being told that the bedroom tax is hitting disabled people unfairly, the government continues to mislead the public on how disabled people are faring under this system. In fact, they are appealing a decision that exempted a severely disabled woman from paying the bedroom tax as she cannot share a room with her partner.
Thirdly, there are the changes to the provision of care to the disabled. Severe local government cuts have seen care budgets slashed, meaning disabled people are being forced into paying for essential care out of their own (likely meagre) incomes, and even for things such as incontinence pads. Forget “heating or eating” there are disabled people being forced to choose between heating, eating, or sitting in soiled clothing. Along with this has been the government’s attempt to scrap the Independent Living Fund, which allows 20,000 of the most severely disabled people in the country to live independently in their own homes. The attempt to do so was ruled illegal by the High Court, but no new applicants are allowed access to it, and it will be scrapped in 2015.
2) The Independent Living Fund
Now, one of the worst cuts which I mention above, and what sparked the idea for this post is the scrapping of the Independent Living Fund. The government is currently in court for the third time since 2010 fighting against disabled people who claim that the ILF’s closure will ruin their lives. The following is a good video where disabled people themselves (shock horror) talk about what the scrapping of the ILF would mean for them.
3) Why aren’t we being listened to?
The point I’m trying to get at here is that we have (as we have had with most of the government’s policies toward the disabled) outspoken opposition from large groups disabled people regarding the government’s position on the ILF, and yet we’re totally ignored. Now it seems to me that when it comes to things such as the ILF, that the views of disabled people should be paramount, given that they’re the ones who are primarily going to be affected by it. Instead, the concerns are brushed aside by (mostly) able-bodied politicians. As well as making for awful policy, it’s also patronising and insulting. If someone who is disadvantaged tells a relatively privileged person that what they’re doing is going to ruin their life, the right thing to do on the part of the privileged is to listen and to accommodate. The wrong thing to do as someone with privilege is to trivialise the concern of the disadvantaged person and insist that they, in fact know best, when they have no experience in the matter and the consequences won’t fall on them. However, the second approach is the one the current government seems to be taking.
Further, I think the media should harbour some blame on this as well. This week, the courts have been hearing a challenge on behalf of disabled people against the abolishing of the ILF. Along with this there have been massive protests to save the ILF, including the blocking of The Strand by protestors. However, there’s barely any mention of this in the media, and none at all on the BBC website. Now I’m not pushing some sort of media conspiracy here (though the interests of capital obviously do have an effect on media coverage), but this looks like something that should be covered pretty extensively.
4) Wider problems
On the issue of able-bodied politicians ignoring the views of the disabled when it comes to policy, I think this can probably be attributed, at least to some extent, of a wider tendency in society to ignore the disabled. I’m wary talking about this as I have the relative privilege of being able to masquerade fairly convincingly as able-bodied. However, from observing, both in real life and on places like the Everyday Ableism twitter feed (which is seriously great for anyone who doesn’t already follow it), able-bodied people have a tendency to address disabled people, particularly those in wheelchairs, through their able-bodied friends, family and carers, despite the fact that most disabled people can communicate perfectly well for themselves, or with help. There seems to be an assumption on the part of many people, that disabled people somehow lack the ability to know what is best for them or to articulate their view points, which I feel plays a significant part in the marginalisation of disabled people in the policy process. If able-bodied people are unwilling to address, and listen to disabled people as equals in everyday life, is it really that surprising that they don’t address them, or their issues, as having equal importance when it comes to policy?
In addition there’s the problem of under-representation. A lack of disabled people in media is likely to result in reduced exposure to disabled issues in wider society. I do wonder how many able-bodied people are even aware of things like the scrapping of the ILF. The fact that these issues aren’t widely covered is a massive threat to the rights of the disabled in a democratic society.
The under-representation issue also damages the disabled (as well as disadvantaged groups in society) in a formal sense. The fact is, policy toward disabled isn’t just conducted without meaningful input from them, but is conducted almost entirely by able-bodied people, which frankly, is a fucking joke.
Sam.
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