Three pointers

As the new Government takes office, Peter White suggests three ways that disabled people’s lives could be helped

A harsh verdict was delivered after a radio discussion I chaired in the run-up to the election in May.
Broadly, listeners felt that the representatives of the three major parties who took part didn’t care about disabled people’s problems. (My own view was they also didn’t know about them.)

No one could say, for example, how jobs would be found for the million or so disabled people the parties say they want to get into employment; or why a fit 66-year-old should get the winter fuel allowance while someone under 60 with circulatory problems couldn’t (to be fair, the LibDems did have a bit of an answer to this one); or why pensioners should have their carers’ allowance removed, even though carers’ responsibilties were likely to increase.

So, in a spirit of helpfulness, I’d like to offer three policies to genuinely help disabled people in this country, even if they’re unlikely to be acted upon.

First, I’d like to see an uncoupling of the link made by the parties between reducing the benefits bill and “helping” disabled people back into work. It’s a spurious and pernicious link, based on a blip in history when, at a time of severe unemployment, some people were signed on to what was then Invalidity Benefit rather than put on the dole. If the connection really held good, the numbers on benefits would have declined years ago, as the people involved – usually in their late 40s or 50s – reached retirement age. The fact it hasn’t done suggests the disabilities claimed for are largely genuine. In my experience, disabled people do want to work, but it’s barbarous and economic nonsense to drive them into “non-jobs” with threats of benefit removal. (Oh, and if the benefits paid to such people could actually support a decent lifestyle, that would be better still.)

Next, I’d like the laws on providing accessible equipment extended to manufacturers. At the moment we have the daft situation where retailers are expected to make their services accessible while selling kit that’s unusable. If manfacturers (and designers, for that matter) were required to produce things that could actually be used by disabled people from the start rather than having to have them adapted, it would make far more sense and end up being good for everyone, since design that takes the needs of disabled people into account helps everyone!

Finally, all disabled people should be provided with a broadband connection and adequate equipment if they can’t afford it, regardless of whether they work or not. Wasn’t New Labour promising something along those lines 13 years ago?