Minister rules out changes to Disability Living Allowance
Posted by Ian Noon on October 23, 2009
After months of uncertainty and with nothing apparently being ruled in on out, Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for the Department for Health has now come out with a clear statement that there will be no changes to Disability Living Allowance as part of the Government’s green paper on social care. NDCS and lots of other charities had made it very clear that they didn’t want to see any changes that might disadvantage deaf children.
For parents of deaf children who were worried about possible changes to Disability Living Allowance, this is reassuring news indeed.
MM said
So the kids are allright, are adults ? It is a bit of a red herring really the issue is more, deaf cannot fill in the forms because they are not included in them nor their issues, so we don’t claim. DLA is not universally agreed as the best way to empower and support the deaf,it all needs to be applied to the supportive areas,and then deaf given real choices. the HIGHEST rate of DLA will not pay for a deaf child to have social support outside a school, that willgive them any option but a deaf club.. and they STILL have to que up to the NHS. When I had DLA first, they called me back 6 times to ask “Are you still deaf..have you acquired sign language ? do you have a social worker ?” If I answered no to the first or said I wore an hearing aid it improved a bit, or yes to any of the rest, DLA would be withdrawn for good. I was faced with taking a choice do I get social worker support and learn sign language, because if I do, I lose the lot. It’s not ‘discrimination’ either…!