[guide.chat] Forwarded Email: Save DLA and AA - the first crucial task
- From: "elaine nutley" <e.nutley@xxxxxxx>
- To: "Guide Freelists" <guide.support@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Guide Chat" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:43:12 +0100
Thought non believers should read this.
-----Original Message-----
From: Benefits and Work - Email Address: benefitsandwork@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent On: 11/08/2009 09:08
Sent To: e.nutley@xxxxxxx - Email Address: e.nutley@xxxxxxx
Subject: Save DLA and AA - the first crucial task
Dear Elaine,
Persuading disability charities to speak out against the threat to disability
benefits is absolutely crucial. Unless leading agencies like Mind, Arthritis
Care and the MS Society are prepared to openly oppose these proposals it will
be very difficult to halt them. The government will be able to argue that they
consulted with 'stakeholder' organisations and they supported the green paper.
So whether they are swayed by the strength of your arguments or alarmed by the
prospect of losing members who feel abandoned by them, it's vital that they
commit themselves to defending AA and DLA. So far only RNIB has been courageous
enough to risk the wrath of six secretaries of state rather than desert its
members.
So what we're going to suggest you do today this week is to get in touch with a
local or national disability organisation, preferably one that deals with a
condition that affects you or someone you care for.
Even if all you can manage is a quick email saying:
'What are you doing about the green paper plans to abolish some disability
benefits?'
that will be enough to make them realise people are aware of, and concerned
about, the issue.
But if you feel able to write in more detail, below are some of the points you
may want to make. We haven't written a standard letter or email for people to
copy because we think that they may quickly be dismissed as just a sort of
spam.
1 Explain very briefly that you are concerned about the proposals in the
Shaping the Future of Care Together green paper to integrate some disability
benefits into a new funding stream for a National Care Service
2 Explain why DLA care component or AA is important to you.
3 Point out that it's vital that their organisation work with other disability
charities to fight with you on this issue, because the government will find it
hard to ignore a wide coalition of disability organisations.
4 Point out that RNIB have put a statement on their website saying they will
oppose the scrapping of AA and other disability benefits and that if such a
reputable organisation is prepared to do this then there's no reason why every
disability organisation can't do the same.
5 You might want to explain that at the moment the campaign against abolishing
disability benefits is being led by a private sector company and that you think
this is highly inappropriate, it ought to be a coalition of charities leading
the way.
6 You may also want to suggest that if charities look the other way as their
members are deprived of a vital part of their income then it may result in
charities getting a great deal less support, fewer members and fewer donations
in the future.
7 Most important of all: ask for a reply. And if you don't get one, keep going
back until you do. And when you do, send us a copy and we'll publish at least
some of them. Or if you're a Benefits and Work member, post the reply in the
forum here:
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=showcat&catid=13
If you'd like to contact more than one charity, then members of the Disability
Benefits Consortium are worth considering. This is a coalition of charities
which "aims to lobby and campaign on welfare benefits as they relate to
disabled people." Clearly they are the people who should be running this
campaign, rather than Benefits and Work.
You can find the email contact details for all these organisations on this page:
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=view&catid=13&id=10362
Another possibility is the members of the green paper stakeholder panel.
There's a list of the members here, though we haven't had time to research
email addresses - volunteers to do so would be very welcome:
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum?func=view&catid=13&id=10356
If you want to be getting on with other things rather than waiting for next
weeks' email, then there's a few suggestions here:
www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/disability-living-allowance-(dla)/dla-aa-cuts/take-action
Thank you again for signing up to the No More Benefits Cuts campaign. At the
time of writing you are one of an astonishing 13,815 people who have done so in
less than a week.
You can read more about what's been happening, from RNIB's statement to details
of a local campaign in deepest Cornwall, on this page:
Many thanks also to everyone who's been in touch. I do apologise if we haven't
replied to your email or returned your call - there have been many more than we
could cope with. But we do very much appreciate hearing what people have been
doing.
Please feel free to forward or publish this email.
Good luck,
Steve Donnison
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(c) 2009 Steve Donnison. All rights reserved.
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