Email Bulletin Edition 5 winter 2013

Dear Member I hope that you all had a good Christmas and I wish you all a happy new year. The New Year brings with it a new logo for Harrow Mencap. Whilst we remain an independent organisation that affiliates to national Mencap our new logo cements our partnership relationship with National Mencap. This means we will work more closely together to raise awareness, increase opportunities and promote rights for people with learning disabilities and their families and carers.

Hardest Hit Campaign On Monday 3rd December International Day of Disabled People , 200 people including disabled people and their supporters took to the streets of Harrow to protest that disabled people are the hardest hit by cuts to local services and changes
1

to benefits. The march jointly organised by Harrow Mencap and Harrow Association of Disabled People (HAD) started from the PCT offices to the Job Centre Plus building and concluded at the Civic Centre. These cuts are having a devastating effect on disabled people and their families driving them into poverty and isolation. They are also counterproductive as relatively small amounts of support can enable disabled people to live independently, cutting this support can drive disabled people into crisis leading to more expensive support in the future.

While we recognise that the Government has to find savings, we dont believe that these should be at the expense of disabled children and adults. You can get more information on the hardest hit campaign here http://thehardesthit.wordpress.com/

PIP regulations announced On the 13th December the Government presented parliament with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) regulations.

Under the Welfare Reform Act, PIP will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) next year. The regulations set out that, by May 2018, 600,000 fewer people will be in receipt of PIP than would have been the case under DLA 450,000 of these are of working age.

Disabled people's minister Esther McVey told the House of Commons: "By reforming the system, ensuring it is fit for the 21st century, we can use the money we spend on disabled people more efficiently and effectively to help those most in need."

She added: "By October 2015 we will have reassessed 560,000 claimants. Of those, 160,000 will get a reduced award and 170,000 will get no award. However, 230,000 will get the same or more support." The reassessment timetable will also be slower than anticipated. New claims will be assessed for PIP from April 2013 (in controlled areas), with a national roll out for new claims taking place from June 2013. October 2013 will see the start of reassessment, but the peak period of reassessments will be October 2015. There will be an increase in numbers getting both the enhanced rates of mobility/daily living components, compared to high rate care/mobility for DLA.
3

Whilst we welcome some of the changes and the slower rate for implementation we remain very concerned that the assessment criteria do not allow for the subtleties of someones learning disability or mental health issues and the impact these have on the different aspects of their lives. You can find the new regulations here http://www.dwp.gov.uk/pip/

Harrow Mencap Membership From the 1st April 2013 full membership will be free to disabled people their families and carers. If you are using our services you will automatically become a full member unless you tell us that you do not want to be. If you currently use our services you will get a letter from us in the next couple of months asking if you want to be a member. We are doing this because we believe that the people who use our services should have more of a say in the organisation. Many of the people who use our services already believe that they are members of Harrow Mencap although they do not get a vote in our Annual General Meeting. These changes will give them full voting rights.
4

Harrow Mencap has over 200 volunteers and in recognition of all the work they do they will be entitled to free membership for as long as they volunteer. We know that lots of non-disabled people also support our work and we are grateful for all the support they give us. They will also be able to be members of Harrow Mencap for an annual subscription of 10.

Changes to Social Fund Changes to the Social Fund as part of the Welfare Reform Bill will see local councils become responsible for its administration and the abolition of two parts of the fund - community care grants and crisis loans. Harrow Council is currently consulting on what the local scheme should look like. We are holding a meeting so you can find out more and have your say on Tuesday 22nd January at 11am at Community Solutions 25-27 Pinner Green

Dont forget you can keep up with everything we are doing by following us on twitter @harrowmencap or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Harr ow-Mencap/191677064210405 Want to help click herehttps://mydonate.bt.com/charities/harrowmencap