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Demand more support for disabled people in the cost of living crisis #Petition

Politics
#1

"Disabled people and their families are at breaking point.

Even before the cost of living crisis, life was more expensive for disabled people. Many face essential extra costs like specialist equipment, insurance and therapies.

77% of disabled people don’t know how they’ll cope if prices continue to rise.

This means they’re more vulnerable to the current soaring energy, fuel and food costs.

The financial support offered by the government is not enough. Disabled people and their families need long-term, ongoing support to protect them from massive debt. Join us in demanding more."…

A benefits system that meets disabled people’s needs

Benefits should be urgently increased in line with inflation, so families don’t get left behind.

More financial support to cope with higher energy costs

This includes reinstating the Warm Home Discount for disabled people and their families, giving them £150 off their energy bills in winter. In 2022, the government made changes to the eligibility criteria which means that 300,000 disabled people are now paying more – we’re asking for this to be reversed.

Targeted support for disabled children and their families

The government must recognise, and respond to, the unique pressures faced by disabled people and their families.

Why the government must do more

In May 2022, the government announced that all households would get a one-off reduction of £400 on energy bills. It also announced that everyone on means-tested benefits would receive a one-time payment of £650, and those on disability benefits would receive a one-off payment of £150.

62% of disabled people and their families say they’ve had to choose between heating and eating in the last year.

One-off payments are helpful, but they’re not enough to address the long-term challenges that disabled people and their families face.

Without more support, many disabled people could be driven to cut back on essentials like food, heating and life-saving equipment."

https://www.sense.org.uk/get-involved/campaign/cost-of-living/

1 Like
#2

Signed.

1 Like
#3

FYI A friend of mine rang me up today to say that he turned his 400w horticultural bulb off after 18 hrs use had cost him (on top of his other domestic use), nearly £5. There’s going to be trouble about this, very few non-electricity stealing (“legit”), personal use cannabis grower will be able to afford to grow now (esp. those on benefits).

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#4

Well I’m growing stuff nicely, G, using that old-fashioned thingy to provide the (free) gro-lite. What’s it called again…? Oh yes, the Sun (the star, not the trash-rag).

Takes a bit longer. I have automatics which have taken four months from germination to harvest-ready, when they’re supposed to be able to complete in as little as seven weeks. But the old antediluvian way still works.

Though yes, you’re quite right: you need a situation where local nuisances can’t ruin your grow. I find big, mastiff-derived dogs help a lot in preventing that; just the word locally about their presence here does the job. A close neighbour has a first-cross Cane Corso/Dutch Shepherd hybrid. Splendid dog. The little trickle of intruding strangers to this secluded country place has choked off completely since Coby came.

I noticed the same when I had Turkish Shepherd dogs here. And they say that the landscape in Yosemite has improved in tree-cover drastically since wolves were reintroduced there, because that caused the deer to stop going amongst the young trees, to tear down their growth, since it had become too dangerous for them to enter ambushable, restricted-vision environs.

Just one of those natural ways to re-balance an unbalanced situation. Doesn’t have to be big dogs either. Another neighbour has two dachshund-sized staffies; utter sweeties to those like me who are their friends, but they kick up that frightening raving-snarl of the pitties whenever an unknown face hoves into view…

And dogs are such balm to a bruised spirit. Dearest of dear friends, always. Utterly, unwaveringly loyal and always-loving healers. Good for anyone who needs healing help in the struggles of life, G…

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#5

Would you feed them this…?

2 Likes
#6

Signed G.
Seems disabled people feel the heat a bit earlier.

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#7

When things are falling apart, it’s always the poorest and the most vulnerable who are sacrificed first, so that the gics and their bourgeois servants can postpone feeling the heat on their own privileges for as long as possible. In the gics’ collective mind - and in that of plenty of their servants - we, the plebs, are simply cattle, to be managed, and where ‘necessary’ to be culled as it suits them.

Beneath all the polite fictions of fatter times, of a ‘social contract’ between the rulers and the ruled, that’s the chips-are-down reality. History offers multiple examples.

3 Likes
#8

Commonly, K, I gave them raw, meaty bones, as recommended by famous Aussie vet Ian Billingshurst in his best-seller ‘Give Your Dog A Bone’. ‘BARF’ as he called it, with typically BarryHumphrine humour: Biologically appropriate raw food.

Only shifted my dogs onto to easy-digest processed stuff when they were already tottering, incontinent ancients, on the way out, and just wanted easy, tasty junk. Bit like me, really. :grinning: (Not actually incontinent yet! But you didn’t want to know that, did you?:slight_smile: )

Btw, if you read the small-print analysis on the canned pet ‘food’ junk, you’ll find that every single one of them is about four-fifths water - absolutely invariably euphemised as ‘moisture’ - except for ‘Chappie’ which is only three-quarters water. The rest appears to be abattoir floor-sweepings and fish-processing waste, plus grains unfit for human consumption, cooked up with gelling agents, to give the false impression of solid substance.

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#9

Insects might not be much worse…

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#10

Difficult for a veggie/vegan like me, nevertheless, I keep the option open…