(unchecked)
The welfare reform bill (WRB) has been incredibly frustrating
because of the serious impact its going to have on many tens of thousands of
disabled people. And I think I and lots of other people expected our amendments
to be overturned in the commons what we probably didn’t expect was financial
implications to be brought in against that which really kinda ties our hands
and makes it much more challenging to take back different amendments to keep
fighting this through because our job in the lords is to try to improve
legislation, ask the government to think again
The reform of the welfare state is incredibly important, yes
I know we have to save money BUT half a million disabled people could be
seriously affected by the changes that the government are bringing in and that
means that poorer people, the most vulnerable in society will be pushed into
more difficult circumstances and to me, it doesn’t feel at the moment like the
whole of society is bearing the brunt of our austerity. Its not affecting
me, its not affecting many of my
friends, but it is affecting disabled people, disabled people in low paid work.
And there no doubt, disability living allowance (DLA) is not
perfect but, I don’t think we’e
moved in enough of a direction that reassures disabled people that they are
going to be protected and they are going to be safe.
And I’m not convinced we are going to be saving the money
that the government think we are going to save.
I’m getting on average about 600 emails a week from disabled
people who are terrified about the changes and an awful lot around DLA. One
mans contacted me saying if he drops out of DLA, he will lose his car, which
means that he wont be able to get to work and he’s in very low paid work where
he lives there’s no public transport which is accessible, and his car is the
only means of actually being able to be integrated in society. And actually,
that’s the tip of the iceberg because society is generally not that accessible
for disabled people. so if disabled people start dropping out of work, then
they start becoming ghettoized and their not seen as a natural part of society
and actually I worry that its gonna become the way it was when I was young
where you just didn’t see disabled people out on the street because they were
locked away. They weren’t in education, they weren’t in work, so the public
just didn’t see them.
We haven’t seen disabled people protesting on the streets
for about 20 years, and that’s what im starting to see again, you know disabled
people are coming together to say look, you know please don’t treat us like
this. And it is a worry, and its part of, I guess the game of politics in terms
of what information gets out there, how much interest the public take, but
there is a view that disabled people are raking it in, that their living in a
life of luxury and you know the worlds ok for them. And the reality is nowhere
near that. Most disabled people I know are in very low paid jobs, or their
unable to get work because of discrimination. And on a day to day basis they have
people who discriminate against them. And even me, you know, im in the house of
lords, I was a successful athlete. Every single day I have people who talk down
to me, who patronize me, who ask me do i need help. When I say no they still
kinda give it to me, you know I get pushed across the road. And if that’s
happening to me and someone who’s very confident about dealing with it, what’s
happening to disabled people who don’t feel their able to fight against that and don’t eel they have a
voice to speak up against it.
Having Paralympics on home soil is an amazing opportunity to
help to push a change in attitude to disability, to encourage better
accessibility and better integration. However then on the other side of my life
I’m talking about welfare reform and how badly most disabled people are treated
and I think one of the things that we’ve not seen, which we’ve seen in terms of
other minority sectors is the disability rights movement get together with
sports. In feminist politics and women athletes in sport are very closely
linked so your actually able to drive change, but actually elite sport doesn’t
fit with the social model of disability because elite sport is about beating
everyone else, being better than everyone else, its not about being equal, and
then disability rights is about trying to get better equality for all disabled
people but I think there’s a lot we can learn and actually if more disabled
athletes become politically
educated and politically aware about how the vast majority of disabled people
are treated.. They provide a very good platform and are very good to speak out.
So I think we’ve seen a much closer move together nd I can only see the benefit
from disability rights and sport working together to bring about some positive
changes.
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