The Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centre (DUWC) received a grant of more than £41,000 annually and a further £50,000 from Public Health to carry out tribunal representation work for people challenging decisions by the Department for Work and Pensions regarding benefit reductions and withdrawals. But the funding from the County Council will come to an end on March 31. Colin Hampton, co-ordinator of the centres for the past 33 years, said: “DUWC, irrespective of who is in government, gives a voice to those who come to seek our help." “You would think those in power would welcome this feedback but it appears that this authority would rather not hear what they have to say." “The centres have many funding streams and even more supporters. We will be embarking on a massive fundraising campaign to bridge the gap left by the Council’s cynical move.” Thousands of Derbyshire residents use the service, which has offices throughout the county. It also comes at a time when the centres are dealing with the full digital roll out of universal credit. Please visit our website for more information about the service: http://www.duwc.org.uk/

If this erroneous decision is not rescinded then it would create a two tier urgent care system that would exclude, workers, visitors and those that participate in the full range of sporting fixtures that happen in the area from accessing and using the urgent care centre: putting untold pressure on KGH A&E and the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Over the year 2016-2017 nearly 174,000 allegations were closed and 149,450 (86%) of tip offs were incorrect allegations. Over the financial years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 332,850 cases were closed following reports by members of the public (of benefit fraud). Of these 287,950 were found to have no or little evidence to substantiate the claim (87%) We need to stop the culture of hunting out benefit fraud, as most of the time the allegations are incorrect. Going through this process has a detrimental effect on disabled and chronically ill people’s mental and physical health. We believe that if the public are to remain involved in reporting on alleged benefit fraud then they should not be allowed to do this anonymously and should have to give at least their name and national insurance number. This will help to make people think about their actions before picking up the phone, will help to reduce bogus allegations, and will make improvements to this culture of thinking people on benefits are scrounges and that disabled/chronically ill people are faking (when in fact they are probably faking being well most of the time). If someone is found to be a serial malicious reporter then they should be fined and banned from giving tip offs again. The general public have a slim view and understanding of what disability/chronic illness ‘looks like’ resulting in more reports of benefit fraud and disabled/chronically ill people being scared to leave the house for fear they’ll be reported increasing isolation in communities and fears that your neighbour is spying on your every move. Let’s stop feeding this narrative. Please help us make some positive changes to the benefits system. Together we rise! Faye Dempsey, Ellie Hicks, Alison Morton Articles of interest: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/01/spy-on-your-neighbour-britain-demonisation-benefit-claimants-disabled-people www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/benefit-fraud-public-tip-offs-legal-action-police-no-evidence-dwp-work-pensions-department-a8144096.html

I am a mother to a 10 year old son who's severely disabled after contracting meningitis at 11 months old, My child has always been small enough for me to allow him to join in with his siblings & other children using the parks equipment like slides, swings, roundabouts. Seesaws, ect whilst being on my lap. Unfortunately he's now a 10 year old lad who needs hoisting with no upper body control this is making it difficult for me to be able to hold him on the equipment whilst he plays. There's equipment to suit children like my child so they don't have to miss out and can enjoy playing in the park along with other children his age, I'm asking for the local councils to support this cause so children don't have to feel isolated in their own communities

In King's Lynn, one of only two local residential respite units which supports many children with disabilities and Complex Needs has been earmarked for other usage. The remaining unit has only four beds and cannot accommodate all the children affected by this decision. Although Norfolk have a legal obligation to provide short breaks for disabled children, the council has still decided to shut it down. Residential Respite such as Morley House is essential to the well-being of these disabled children (who have already been assessed as needing the highest level of support) and their families who depend on the time to give other siblings or family members support, and access parts of everyday life (such as shopping, medical appointments and household maintenance it is difficult or impossible to do safely while caring for their disabled child). They allow children to make friends and try activities and days out which other children take for granted. Without access to Morley House, many of these children will be denied what every child should have, a life with friends where they can enjoy experiences in a safe environment with people who can understand and support them. In addition to the use as a residential respite unit, Morley House is also used to house educational boarders from the local Complex Needs School. This provision is part of their education. For my family and many others Morley House is a lifeline, the only place we know our child is safe and well looked after which enables us to relax and meet the needs of our younger child and give her the everyday experiences we cannot safely provide while caring for our older daughter, daytrips to the beach or even visits to the homes of family and friends are impossible apart from the times our older daughter is in respite. We need your support to reverse this decision and ensure our children and the many children who will come after ours still have access to this essential service.

Remote villages need access to frequent reliable transport links to towns. Anyone who does not drives will be isolated and cut off from doing normal things in society

Dr Glen has renewed her application to add Plains, Caldercruix and Hillend to her practice area and is hoping to achieve this by August 2018 with agreement from Lanarkshire NHS. The Primary Care Department of NHS Lanarkshire gave assurances in Caldercruix in January 2014 at a public meeting that there would continue to be GP services in Caldercruix at dedicated premises.The present service is well short of the assurances given to Alex Neil MSP in 2014 about a commitment to having a GP in the village. Assurances were also given to the Scottish Government that a GP would be in place in the village. The NHS is under pressure and Dr Glen is able to offer appointments in a permanent building with nursing and administrative support all ready to run for the benefit of local villages.

I Believe this is important because at the minute carers either have to get the disabled person or elderly to go with them with a companion disabled concession card or Cost a lot to the bank balance out of the limited funds each week. This means going shopping for the disabled or elderly with out spending the small amount of carers funds

There are over 320 million people worldwide who suffer from a form of colour blindness, mostly males (8% of the population). Having dealt recently with HSBC bank, they do not seem to be up to date with how to deal with people with this form of disability. We need to change their attitude. They have redesigned their cards to all be similar across 30 countries but with different colour combinations. I have been told on the telephone that the grey business debit card I have will not or cannot be replaced with any other colour. The card to me is silver with a shiny silver lion and silver embossed numbers making it impossible to read (like the image above but imagine it being laminated, shiny). Many people have already said they have cards with such issues and they are not colour blind so this needs to be addressed by all banks.

Disabled drivers and people being transported in the UK are put at a serious disadvantage by people abusing a scheme that does not serve the people it was set up for. The government will say it for individual councils to police the Blue Badge scheme but even when councils weren't so strapped for cash at the most 3 councils in the UK had blue badge inspectors. Since the councils have had their budgets slashed do you think they can afford to police this? It needs overhauling at point of issue.

Fun for all is an exciting project for the family which organises trips and fun activities for families living in Redbridge with a disabled child aged 0-18 years. A small charge is made for the activities but it is often a fraction of the full cost. Some of the trips offered are Theme Parks, London, Ice Skating, Swimming, Zoo & More. Without this service many families wouldn't be able to do these activities as they wouldn't feel confident taking a child with special need out in public.

There is a young 8 year old boy called Jack who was admitted to Alder Hey Children's Hospital on the 25th October 2017, SEVEN WEEKS AGO. Jack lives with autism and has mental health issues; extreme low self-esteem, suicidal. Jack has recently had a severe mental breakdown - hence the stay at Alder Hey Hospital. Jack was assessed as a tier 4 and has been waiting in hospital for a bed to come available in a children’s unit, for SEVEN WEEKS. Jack or his family have been offered no support from CAMHS in the past seven weeks. This is the reason why; Jack has been assessed by the Tier 4 team(in-patient CAMHS unit) and is waiting on an inpatient bed becoming available. This means they cannot work with Jack in his current environment (Alder hey hospital) only once allocated a bed within a unit, So, Jack does not fit the CRITERIA for tier 3 support (community), and can not access the tier 4 support until he is an inpatient in their unit. It is imperative that the government increase funding for children's mental health to prevent this level of waiting time and the dangerous gap that exists between accessible support in a crisis.