What starts with 'E' and ends with homelessness?

Eviction is one of those words that you’ve heard your whole life, like bankruptcy or jail but never in your darkest, cheese-induced dreams did you ever think you might face yourself.  It’s a “grown-up” word, a word whispered in corners or highlighted in a seedy documentary.

I certainly never considered for a moment that it would ever be a word to cause ME sleepless nights and heart-thumping panic.  That was until I lost my job. Many of you are aware that I’ve had on-going medical issues over the past year, you may not know that I was “let-go” in November.  It was very quick and painless, without  fuss or ceremony, just a P45 dropping quietly onto my doormat.



Nothing to be alarmed about, we have systems in place to help the unemployed of Britain don’t we?  Yes we do and I am so grateful for them, I am a lot worse off financially now than when I was receiving the minimum sick pay from my employer but I knew that with adjustments we had enough money to live on and a roof over our heads.

Then my Landlord gave me notice.  Not a worry, I began looking for another house and found one in my village almost immediately.  Then came the bombshell that made the “Eviction” word a part of my world.  Since the government announced their planned Welfare Reforms, Letting agents will no longer rent properties to Housing Benefits claimants.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Who claims Housing Benefit ?  Single parents, lower-paid workers, mature students, pensioners, unemployed and the disabled.

Putting aside the others as this post is for the Broken Of  Britain, Housing Benefit is claimed by the disabled who are unable to work due to their disabilities or who are in poorly paid employment.  Not only are they already under a lot of financial strain and living in fear of the benefit changes being implemented but now they risk  homelessness as well.
There is a way around the letting problem though, you provide a guarantor for the letting agency.. at double the usual referencing cost and at huge cost to your pride and self-esteem.
But what if you can’t provide or afford a guarantor?  What will happen to these people? Local Housing Association lists in many areas are already so strained they can only allot houses to homeless people.  My dream is to have a LHA house, to be able to afford the rent which would be half (yes HALF) what I am paying now to my private landlord.  The money I am saving in rent would remain in the public purse, rather than filling the fat wallet of my landlord..



One suggestion I have to address Letting Agent’s concerns is for the government to return to the policy of paying Housing Benefit directly to the Landlord, rather than the claimant. Another would be to reassure claimants and Letting Agencies that HB will always be paid to the low-income disabled and ill people of Great Britain and, if it isn’t already, to make it illegal to discriminate against them in this way.
As for me, I lost the village house to a working family but am now in the ”referencing” stage of renting another.. My Landlord has filed papers to commence the process but I am keeping EVERYTHING crossed that the “E” word doesn’t soon become my reality.

Originally posted here 

Access Small Areas - Steve Sparshott

Being disabled and not being a billionaire evil genius is a shite state of affairs.

After a six year trial period, I’ve decided it’s not for me. The problem is context - context being, supposedly, everything. You see, I didn’t spec my environment; I don’t have a hollowed-out island full of boiler-suited minions, with smooth floors and rapid, spacious lifts. I have London, and it’s a fucking disgrace.

Let me tell you about my “wheel-chair”. The concept of a chair with wheels seems to perplex some people, but I’ll assume you’re not one of them. Do your knuckles drag on the ground when you walk? Are you involved in civic planning for one of London’s numerous (peculiarly autonomous) boroughs? Do you own an airline? No? OK.

It’s electric - I don’t even have the dignity of a cool titanium-framed carbon-wheeled manual chair, because my right arm has no function at all; I could propel a manual, but only in circles. So I hum along, steering the thing left-handed with a little joystick. It’s correctly called a powerchair. People call it an “electric chair”, and we laugh, or a scooter, and I correct them. If I had a pound for every time I’ve seen someone park one of those mobility scooters, hop off, extinguish their cigarette and stroll into a shop, I’d have enough money to buy a pair of American Apparel underpants.

As Alistair Cookie once said on Monsterpiece Theater: Me digress.

Where was I? Oh yes, fucking disgrace. Pavements full of bombholes, unending “maintenance” work, people wandering slack-jawed, their faces and minds buried in text - on my way c u in 5 lol. Bikes and dogs’ eggs, always dumped right in the middle of the pavement. And then…

In every street there’ll be one junction where the kerbs aren’t lowered. Or my favourite variation - it’s lowered on one side but not the other. How does that happen? Are the two sides of the road in different boroughs? Did the budget run out just there? So I have to venture out into the road and find the next place where I can clunk back up onto the pavement. Fifty percent chance I’ll be going against the flow of traffic.

I have to do just that to get to my own front door. A few months back I was scuttling along my street, hugging the kerb, pulling an apologetic face at the drivers of the few cars coming the other way, and the last one, a dark blue Vauxhall Astra, swerved towards me.

Let me reiterate.

The driver. Of a car. Swerved towards a guy in a. Wheel. Chair. The driver started shouting.

“Wot the fack you doin’, you’ve got the whole fackin…” I didn’t hear the rest, I just kept going.

Since then I’ve taken to waiting at the end of the one-way stretch until there are no cars. I then buzz along full tilt, past my own front door to the first available driveway. Still, that takes a while; a car can easily appear at the far end and meet me half way. A few days ago, that car was a dark blue Astra.

We must have both performed an instant risk assessment - the type that doesn’t involve research and analysis, the type that doesn’t even really involve  the brain. And what our spines told us both to do was: Keep going. I maintained a completely blank expression and stared at him; he just looked straight ahead, and we breezed past each other.

I struggle on in my naïveté, continuing to believe that people are basically decent. Catch them on the wrong day, though, and they’ll drive a car at a guy in a wheelchair.

Painful to live in fear isn’t it? Nothing is worse than having an itch you can never scratch.

Oh I agree.

Announcing One Month Before Heartbreak

I’ve been thinking about things that we can do to raise awareness of The Broken of Britain and our cause. This post is to announce our newest venture.

One Month Before Heartbreak

A Broken of Britain

Blogswarm

14^th – 16^th January 2011

What is it?

It’s something a bit similar to Blogging Against Disablism Day (BADD). Although I will run this yearly if I need to, I’m really hoping not to need to. Basically it’s people getting together to all blog on a subject or a theme at a specified time. The hope is that by all writing at the same time it raises awareness and makes more of an impact.

Why One Month Before Heartbreak?

The consultation that’s currently ongoing about DLA reform ends on 14^th February 2011. Which is Valentine’s Day, traditionally a day for love but which could severely affect disabled people if DLA reforms aren’t handled correctly. We need to ensure that our voices are heard. We’re holding this event a month before the consultation ends in order to raise awareness of the consultation and give people to chance to respond to it if they wish. Bendy Girl came up with the name of this event.

What do I do?

Basically, write about whatever you want. Obviously, it should have something to do with disability and it would be great if you could mention this event and Broken of Britain. You don’t need to write specifically about the DLA consultation and your personal experience. Those are welcome but this isn’t topic specific.

Nor do you need to write. You can do a video, a recording, write a poem, draw a picture, anything you want!

Who can take part?

Anyone. You don’t need to be disabled or a carer or know a disabled person to take part. Nor do you need to live in the UK or be British. For our campaign and especially for this event to be successful we need to get this out to the wider community, including the international disabled community and the non disabled community.

What can I do to help?

Post on your blog, twitter, Facebook, any website you go on about this event. We need to people to know it’s happening. And keep doing so until the date comes. Use the #BofB or #ombh hashtags on twitter.

I have a more concise version of this announcement people can repost if they wish. Comment here if you want it or let me know where you think it should be reposted.

Take part if you feel able. This event runs over three days in the hopes that more people will be able to contribute than if it was tied to a single day. It’s not necessary to participate each day although you can if you wish.

If you spot something to do with One Month Before Heartbreak that you like, tell the person who wrote or otherwise made it. Who doesn’t love feedback?

Equally if you spot something you like share the link so others see it.

More will be posted about this along with some other ideas on how to take part as we get closer to the time. Please let me know of any suggestions or ideas you have.

Language

Language is important. However people have very different ideas about what is and isn’t acceptable. And they have their reasons for it. For example in some areas “disabled people” is acceptable but in others “people with disabilities” is considered more appropriate. Please respect that everyone has a choice. The Goldfish, creator of BADD, has given me permission to link to her Language of Disability Post which explains more about this.

And Finally…

Please don’t feel any pressure to take part or do more than you’re able to. I want people to stay safe and enjoy this!

Don’t forget the date!

One Month Before Heartbreak

A Broken of Britain

Blogswarm

14^th – 16^th January 2011

Pat's Petition

I'm expecting that most people will have seen this already but to be on the safe side I wanted to share this here.

The government have an e-petition website. If any petition receives over one hundred thousand signatures then it will be eligible for a debate in the House of Commons.

Pat Onions is blind and is also a carer for her husband David. On top of that she finds time to campaign on issues that affect carers and disabled people. One of the things she's done is to launch Pat's Petition which calls for the Welfare Reform Bill to be paused and properly reconsidered.

From the petition:
The government were embarking on wholesale reform of the benefit system when the economic crisis struck. These welfare reforms had not been piloted and the plan was to monitor and assess the impact of the new untried approach as it was introduced in a buoyant economy. Unfortunately since then the economy has gone in to crisis and the government has simultaneously embarked on a massive programme of cuts. This has created a perfect storm and left disabled people/those with ill health, and their carers reeling, confused and afraid. We ask the government to stop this massive programme of piecemeal change until they can review the impact of all these changes, taken together, on disabled people and their carers. We ask the government to stand by its duty of care to disabled people and their carers. At the moment the covenant seems to be broken and they do not feel safe. Illness or disability could affect any one of us at any time, while many more of us are potential carers.

As I write this the petition has a little less than 18,800 signatures. The needed 100K is a way away and it might seem to be impossible. But it's very doable. Recent events have shown just how much we can achieve with each of us doing as little or as much as we can and by remaining united.

So I'm asking everyone who reads this to sign the petition and to do whatever else they feel able to share it with others.

Spartacus Report

I bet many of you never expected to see this blog updated again but this is too important not to share.

A group of disabled campaigners, organised by Sue Marsh of Diary of a Benefit Scrounger raised nearly four grand in funds (solely through the sick and disabled community on blogs and twitter donating what they could afford - a fiver here and a fiver there) and used this money to produce and distribute a very well researched and hard hitting report into DLA reform.

It's official title is Responsible Reform but it's also known as The Spartacus Report.

The full report is here and there is also a press release available.

Please do all you can to share this on twitter, Facebook, blogs etc. The hashtag to use is #spartacusreport and it's being asked that where possible people use old style copy and paste retweets as this counts for getting it trending.

There is also a template letter on Sue's blog (linked above) to use to send the report to your MP.

I hope to share more about this on my own blog as the day progresses.

Please vote for 38 Degrees to campaign on DLA

38 Degrees have a list of various campaign ideas.  One of which is a campaign to Save DLA.  People can vote for which of the campaigns they want to see taken up.  You get 10 votes and can apply up to 3 votes to any one campaign.  

Currently the DLA campaign is in 3rd place. 38 Degrees is a huge organisation with over half a million members.  It describes itself as an organisation which brings you together with other people to take action on the issues that matter to you and bring about real change in the UK. If they campaign on DLA it has huge potential.  Please take a few minutes to learn about 38 Degrees and consider signing up and voting for the DLA campaign.

A campaign to stop the abolition of Disability Living Allowance - the measure of civilised society..

More Press for One Month Before Heartbreak

I have an article in this months Disability Now!

It's called Triumph Over Cuts Tragedy and it's about the One Month Before Heartbreak campaign.  Mostly about the sense of friendship and community we managed to build.  To me that's probably more important that what we did fighting the cuts.

Please comment and let me know what you think of it - I love getting feedback and it's all really useful.

Finally, I'd just like to take this opportunity one more time to send huge huge thanks to everyone who took time to write, tweet, video, comment, facebook and so many other things as a part of One Month Before Heartbreak.  It might have been my idea but you are all part of the reason why it was so successful!