Over the last couple of months, ecdp has been sharing information with members on the Government’s new disability strategy and the work we are doing in Essex to help inform what it will look like. This work presents a significant opportunity for disabled people to shape the society they would like to live in and make recommendations about what needs to be done to achieve it.

This morning we are holding our first discussion group with members. This will be an opportunity for us to ask the questions outlined in the Fulfilling Potential discussion document (embedded at the bottom of the page and available on the ODI website) and collect the lived experience of members.

The first group is made up of members between 18 and 70 years old, with varied lived experience of disability. Our second group, which will be held in February will focus particularly on the lived experience of young disabled people.

In the short video below, ecdp’s Lived Experience Officer introduced the work we will be doing.

We want to ensure all our members have the opportunity to contribute so we are running an online survey in parallel to the discussion groups. Please take the time to tell us about the barriers you face and how you would like to see the Government support disabled people to overcome them: ecdp Fulfilling Potential - lived experience survey

The National Association of Deafened People (NADP) has produced a guide to support successful communication with Deaf people.

1 in 7 people in the UK have some form of hearing loss, and the guides gives some useful tips to ensure that individuals and organisations are able to communicate effectively with them.

The guide is embedded below, or available to download here: Communication Support For Deaf people.

There is also a short leaflet, which includes some of the below tips:

Before you speak to me

• Attract my attention by calling or waving, or by tapping my shoulder.
• Make sure I can see your full face, not just the side view.
• Please don’t turn away whilst talking to me.
• A hearing aid will amplify background noise as well as your voice so it helps to turn off the TV or radio and move away from noisy machinery etc.
• It is better if we are both at the same level – either both sitting or both standing.
• Don’t get too close – the ideal distance is 3 to 6 feet.
• Please be sure to position yourself so that the light from a window or lamp is on your face.

How to speak to me

• Make eye contact.
• Don’t speak too fast but do keep the natural rhythm of speech.
• Speak clearly but don’t exaggerate.
• Speak up a little but don’t shout – it distorts your face.
• Keep your hands away from your face, and don’t smoke or eat whilst talking to me

How to make sure I understand

• The topic of conversation should be clear at the outset.
• Lipreading is partly guesswork – and it’s a lot easier for me toguess a word if I know what you are talking about!
• Think about what you are going to say – vague half sentences will not make sense to me.
• Pause briefly at the end of each sentence to give me time to work out what you have said.

When you speak to me

• Write things down if necessary, especially complicated directions, names, addresses and numbers as these are hard to lipread accurately.
• Repeat yourself if asked, and if I’m still unsure of what you have said, try rephrasing the sentence as different words may be easier to lipread. Don’t just repeat a single word as whole phrases are easier to understand.
• Body language, natural gesture, fingerspelling and basic sign language may all help. Facial expression is also very important.
• Book communication support if needed. Such support includes speech to text reporters, lipspeakers and BSL interpreters.

As we noted yesterday in our PIP update, there were two key amendments to the implimentation of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) debated in the House of Lords last night, both sponsered by former Paralympain and cross-bench peer, Baroness Grey-Thompson.

Number 50zr: requires the PIP assessor to collect evidence from the claimants’ GP or other health care professional as part of the decision-making process.

This first amendment was withdrawn by Baroness Grey-Thompson, who do did not press for a vote.

Number 50e: requires ministers to set up an independent review of the PIP implementation, to set up a trial period before PIP starts, and ensure that “disabled persons organisations” are involved in the changes.

This amendment lost in a vote, 213 -229. More information about this is available via Sky News: Paralympian loses bid to alter welfare bill.

The Guardian published a live blog, following the debate: Welfare Reform Bill - Disability Benefits (Lords Discussion). You can contribute your lived experience to a live discussion the Guardian are hosting about the future of disability benefits.

Yesterday we shared details of a new Government consultation on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the benefit which will be replacing Disability Living Allowance from next year as part of the Welfare Reform Bill. 

The new consultation looks for feedback on the elements of the PIP reform which have been updated and follows the publication of a second draft of the assessment criteria in November and the entitlement thresholds (i.e. how much of the benefit someone is likely to be entitled to, depending on their answers to the questions in the assessment), which were also released yesterday.

Based on these thresholds, it is estimated that around 500,000 people currently recieving DLA will not be entitled to PIP when they are reassessed for the new benefit, leading some to worry that this will result in disabled people’s standard of living falling, and indeed, some have raised concerns that disabled people could end up living in poverty.

Last week, a report called Responsible Reform was published. This report was written by a group of disabled people who reviewed the evidence submitted to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) during the first consultation and concluded that there was more concern about and resistance to the reform of DLA than was previously suggested.

Today a debate is being held in the House of Lords (Welfare Reform Bill, Day Four). You can watch the debate live and read a list of the proposed amendments being debated on the House of Lords website.

Among those Peers involved in the debate are former Paralympian, Lady Grey-Thompson (an independent cross-bencher), who is proposing amendments 50e and 50zr which call for a one year pilot study and a requirement for all assessment to have input from claimants’ GPs.

This BBC Politics article on the welfare changes states that:

In the Lords, cross-bench peers - who are not affiliated to any party - have been among the most vocal critics. They have joined forces with Labour peers to propose amendments and have defeated the government on four occasions so far. On DLA, they want guarantees that assessment tests will be piloted first and those doing them must consult healthcare professionals.

Yesterday a joint statement was released by a coalition of disability organisations asking Peers to support amendments to pause the legislation on the basis of disabled people’s concerns highlighted in the Responsible Reform report and the potential of people no longer being eligible for support they currently recieve.

The Government announced yesterday that they will not be increasing the qualifying period from 3 months to 6, as was originally proposed.

A live discussion of the Lords Debate is available on the Society Guardian website: Welfare Reform Bill - Lords live discussion.

ecdp has worked with members in Essex and beyond to collect their lived experience and respond to the previous DWP consultations on this issue. We are commited to continuing this work and will be carrying out further engagement to respond to the new consultation.

Today, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) has published the entitlement thresholds for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the disability benefit that will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) from 2012. These are embedded below, available here as PDF: PIP assessment thresholds and consultation and will soon be available on the DWP website in a number of alternative formats. 

The document above also contains details of the consultation DWP has opened today. This is intended to seek views on the second draft of the assessment criteria for Personal Independence Payment (see both above and previous information - published in November 2011 - below). Please note, this is also available here as a PDF: PIP second draft of assessment criteria (explanatory note).

In particular, DWP are interested in views on the changes that have been made since the first draft (see ecdp’s report co-produced report on the first draft), the proposed descriptor weightings and entitlement thresholds (the above document published today) and the draft regulations. At this stage in the development process DWP state they do not envisage making significant changes to the broad principles or scope of the assessment and so are not seeking views on these.

The consultation closes on Monday 30 April and more information about how to respond is available on the DWP consultation website.