"We're delighted that one of HAD's Vice Chairs, Adam Gabsi, was given the opportunity to share the concerns shared by Disabled people throughout the UK of the creeping erosion of their rights, at the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, held at the UN last week. Adam spoke for so many people. Watch this video and if you'd like to join our campaign group contact me at a.dias@had.org.uk" - Angela Dias
When asked for comment, Adam said, "The UN Special inquiry report carried out in 2016 was in-depth and damning – and it found that there was grave and systemic violations of Disabled people rights. An extension of time has seen a reduction in rights and quality of life for hundreds of thousands of Disabled people.
Article 19 specifically highlights how Disabled people have been poorly affected in our day-to-day living. DDP/DDPOs (Deaf & Disabled People/Deaf & Disabled Peoples Organisations) in the UK are overwhelmingly of the view that the Committee’s recommendations have not been implemented.
HAD has seen this first hand through thousands of Disabled people and speaking to other DDPOs that endeavour to support some of the hardest hit people in society. Legislation underpinning social care delivery across England has operated under the frame of austerity since 2010. The start point has been negatively effected and excessively underfunded, therefore the outcome should not be in question.
In England we have an aging population, and Adult Social Care should have been a priority for the last prime minister, however, the care system is broken. The warning signs have been there and have been ignored. Care charges for a broken system have increased, leaving some Disabled people in extreme poverty, while the quality of their lives has significantly decreased. This highlights an inequality that Disabled people have seen in numerous instances.
The Westminster government closed the independent living fund (ILF) in June 2015. The ILF sat under the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It provided cash transfers to severely Disabled people to pay for support to enable them to live in the community when the alternative was residential care. At the time of closure there were 18,000 recipients across the UK. This decrease in funding lead to an increase in uncertainty, despair, anxiety and depression, worsening in quality of life and a lack of independence, all unjustifiable human rights breaches.
At HAD we’ve witnessed the care system failing. We’ve watched as charges for critical care have increased while the benefit system has lacked the same rises which could support this. All of which has been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. A quarter of DDP responding to a cost of living survey have had to use a food bank or have relied on others to get food while 68% have had to change the type of foods that they usually buy or what they eat because of low income. A third of respondents cannot afford to pay all their bills and 31% are borrowing money to afford this.
How can the government justify this? How can anybody in a position of power look in the eyes of a young Disabled person and guarantee them that all will be okay, when their peers and seniors have been historically treated with such indifference?"