There cannot
be many who were not inspired by the remarkable performances of all who took
part in the Paralympics which came to an end last night.
Bearing in
mind the astonishing hurdles which they all had to overcome, their achievements
far outweigh those of the mainstream Olympians who went before. They have been
an inspiration to us all regardless of which nation they represented or which
medals they did or didn’t win.
What the
games have also done is emphasise the massive contradiction between the achievements
of people with disabilities and the major struggles that they have to face in
our country.
This is something which I mentioned a few weeks ago –
The tragic
case of Cecilia Burns is one of many –
I attended
a meeting in Liverpool last week with a group
of representatives who advise those who have been deprived of disability
benefits following medical assessments which say that they are fit for work. They
talked of the tens of thousands of appeals against ATOS decisions. They also
confirmed the alarming statistic that about 80% of the appeals succeed where
the claimant is represented. That is bad enough. But to add insult to injury
the entitlement to Legal Aid will be withdrawn for all of these cases in April
2013. This means that these organizations will no longer be able to appear for
those most in need.
I hope that
the achievements of the Paralympics heroes will highlight these injustices. These
are people who have to live from day to day facing difficulties which the rest
of us cannot imagine. Why should they then have to battle
to retain benefits to help them get by? And then on top of that they have to
fight those battles without access to professional advice and support.
Do we
really need to have a discussion about whether or not this is wrong?
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