By Local Democracy Reporter Simon Finlay
A small group of demonstrators gathered outside County Hall in Maidstone this morning (September 12) to protest about changes to disability benefits.
Kent County Council (KCC) has come under fire for altering the way payments are calculated, leaving thousands of vulnerable people out of pocket.
Family members of two recipients stopped councillors as they arrived for KCC’s full council meeting this morning.
Bernadette John, of Matfield, says her 29-year-old son Nathan will be out of pocket and has warned that the squeeze on some disabled people could lead to their deaths.
She said: “I am here because my disabled son stands to lose £35 a week from his benefits and that represents £1,800 a year.
“So, in the week that there has been a huge outcry about pensioners losing the £300 winter fuel allowance and the deaths that will ensue from that, you can see why £1,800, six times that, is such a severe prospect.”
Thanet resident Ian Driver, 68, claimed that his 22-year-old daughter Victoria faces a bill of £40 a week if she wants to access daycare services.
The young woman has learning disabilities and autism and Mr Driver acts as a full-time carer.
He bellowed into a loudhailer this morning as members and staff arrived for work in Maidstone.
Mr Driver added: “This will effectively imprison her. She won’t be able to socialise or meet anyone – it’s downright unfair.
“People are angry about this. It is a tax on the disabled.”
KCC has been under financial pressure for years as a result of soaring bills and squeezed revenues from central government.
It recently revealed it will have to find more than £100m in savings in the next two years. KCC has become reliant on its reserves to balance the books. The authority aims to shave £4m off its annual budget.
Chief executive officer of the Kent charity Disability Assist, Sophie Fournel said: “Higher charges will be a major concern to people who are also facing another year of high energy bills and the cost of living remains high.”
KCC said 276 young people and 2,717 adults have been financially impacted by the new charging policy, adopted on September 12.
The council cabinet member for adult social care, Cllr Dan Watkins (Con), said: “I can assure residents the decision…was not taken lightly and to help mitigate some of the impact this may have on those most in need, we have included a £900,000 contingency in the budget which will help with increased disability-related expenses.
“Faced with increasing demands for complex care, rising costs of care and a lack of adequate funding from central government, we are having to take tough decisions to make sure future essential services are sustainable.”
Debate
There is likely to be a debate later this afternoon on a cross-party motion tabled by the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats asking for the changes to be suspended until the government shows its hand on local government budget-setting.
Labour member for Folkestone Jackie Meade says there may be extra pots of money available in the multi-year settlement.
KCC’s new means-tested scheme takes into account the enhanced rate for night-time attendance allowance, the care component of the disability live allowance (DLA) and the daily living part of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
Now KCC are getting in on the act. Like Starmer ,they are “facing tough decisions…….difficult economic circumstances”etc etc.
But if there was a war ( god knows there are enough warmongers in Britain just aching to start one somewhere) the money would be found immediately. Or if the Banks get greedy and daft again, and lose all their money on dodgy finance schemes a toddler could see through, the government of whatever Party, would bail them out again. Billions to “re finance ” them with a few million on top for the bankers as bonuses for their “good work”.
Britain creates its own currency. A click of a computer mouse sends millions to Ukraine. “Computer money” pays for everything these days. Later, the government can worry if they need to raise taxes in case there is too much inflation, but , as we ” owe” all that money to ourselves on as long a period as we choose, we can afford to be lenient on ourselves. Of course, you can,t let us peasants know this ,so they all witter on about “black holes” in the finances so they can t afford the money needed for a decent life for the disabled, or pensioners, or, in fact, anybody other than the super- rich who are still getting their bonuses . Funny that.
Tough decisions my arse-45 million more a year to the royal spongers, 8.6 billion for GB Energy, 20% pay increases for NHS Consultants on 150k plus a year already, 11.6 billion wasted sending it overseas for ‘climate crisis in other countries’ etc.
While they freeze the elderly to death & going after the poorest in society. Tory, Labour who are now Tory-it makes no difference. They only care about the rich.
great comments , hopefully people are finaly waking to what is realy going on , we are just pawns in the governments rackets , they are looking at who they can rob next , usualy the easy targets – pensioners , disabled folk . imagine the scream if they said no more foriegn aid or no more money for gimigrants ? these are the people they need to be sorting out.
Remember what I said about receiving a broad education,I see there are some here who have not received one.
Government is not about being popular all the time, or needlessly unpleasant to those who you don’t like or disagree with.
I don’t really know about the so called £22bn black hole, it may exist or it may not, but the runes in terms of economic growth and an economic forecast 50 years on tend substantiate the former proposition.
We are an ageing population, there are too many economically inactive and we are not productive enough. We can’t do much about the first part, but we can about the second and third items.
We all hoped that a government of any different hue to the last would bring forth plenty and a cornucopia of spending, well surprising that is not so.
If we don’t want an NHS with a country attached to paraphrase Voltaire, we need to make some changes, and yes they will be painful.
The winter fuel payment will probably be modified, but not by much, and when you look at it, what is the point in subsidising the energy companies, because that’s what it does. Far better to spend double the amount on home insulation, so that the pensioner, will be better off, not just this year but way into the future.Better still build more wind, tide and solar farms, so that energy prices are stabilised. We also subsidise landlords with housing subsidies, its high time we built social, not affordable housing PDQ.
I will ignore all that Reform rubbish about climate change and overseas, because it comes out of the mouth of Farage, and if anyone is a pied piper, that blighter is.
Talking of bellowing, I see Ian Driver is never knowingly under promoting himself again.
By the way, if you are going to bellow like Driver and Farage, it is best to do so by spelling the words correctly.