David Cameron betrays 80,000 disabled veterans
David Cameron loves selling weaponry to foreign countries. What a shame he doesn’t want to look after his own country’s disabled war veterans.
At any given opportunity when in front of TV cameras, David Cameron waxes lyrically about what this nation owes to British Military Forces, with special consideration given to disabled veterans, writes Mo Stewart.
But it seems that he means modern disabled veterans who, since 2005, have benefited from the more generous Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.
Until April 2005, members of the armed forces who suffered a permanent disablement due to service life were awarded a War Pension, with many awarded access to Disability Living Allowance (DLA), for life, to help to fund the additional costs of disability.
Without warning, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has sent letters to working-age War Pensioners advising that access to DLA is about to be stopped and that disabled veterans may, if they wish, apply for the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) – with no guarantee that it will be awarded.
DLA for care at the highest rate is the monitor used by local authorities to provide home care services that permit disabled people to enjoy independent living in the community. Without DLA, or its equivalent replacement, the care services will be removed.
Older War Pensioners, over 65 years of age, are permitted to retain access to DLA for life. Modern disabled British forces have access to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and are unaffected by this unacceptable change as they have access to the new Armed Forces Independence Payment, introduced in 2013.
However, an estimated 80,000 disabled working-age War Pensioners, disabled when in service to the nation before April 2005, are about to have their DLA removed with a guarantee that many will not be awarded PIP, which continues to cause concern with less than 13,000 decisions from more than 220,300 applicants as of May 2014. PIP has a 12 month waiting list for assessments.
This is yet another cost cutting measure by the Prime Minister and the DWP, without consideration for the unacceptable price in human suffering, leaving 80,000 working-age disabled War Pensioners at risk of imminent destitution if PIP is not awarded.
All War Pensioners should be permitted to retain access to DLA to acknowledge their much proclaimed “service to the nation” as constantly mentioned by the Prime Minister – but only when in front of the TV cameras.
NB:
http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2014/11/29/pms-broken-promise-threatens-80000-disabled-veterans/
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He is SO slimy, his deeds never match his words, he is a truly slimy PR man. I would NOT buy a used car from him.
I was injured in 2011. I was awarded a pension as my injury was attributable to service and I had remained on the AFPS 75. I was entitled to full mobility DLA and low rate care. Under PIP, I am not entitled to anything, even though, as I write this, I am on a hospital bed waiting on an operation. It is disgusting how we are treated once injured. I am ashamed to have been part of the forces because of this. The government does not care about us, but are happy to spend money on raising MP wages, foreign aid and other non essential things. No matter how much we speak out about this, we will never be given a chance to show how we are affected.
Would you like a place where you can present your case?
Do you know others in the same situation who would like to do so?
We have tried. We did radio interviews and newspaper interviews, but we are not as important as celebrities fad diets or what they are wearing
Mike some guys have tried and the solicitors basically shafted them for as much legal aid as they could… It’s hard enough trying to get a war pension let alone sue the f***ers…..
Chris, you can’t/shouldn’t be ashamed of your service as the decisions of these governments do not reflect on your service in any way.
traitor to everybody that helped make this country great, and by that i don’t just mean he’s a traitor to soldiers or people that actually know what the word hard work means, but to tax payers, people trying to live and people with humanity. he’s a traitor to humanity. he should be subjected to his own bullshit terrorism laws
Sometimes I really do think of giving up campaigning.
Over 5,000 people turn up to see a wooden box containing POSSIBLY the bones of Richard III (isn’t that rhyming slang for something?)
Yet things like this and the deaths of REAL people THROUGH THE ACTIONS OF THE STATE are met with a shrug of the shoulders and sometimes suspicion that THEY were the ones to blame.
Absolutely ridiculous and a sad reflection of the society we’ve become.
Hear, hear!
Sticking his fingers up to anybody who has served his or her country, only interested in making money for the rich, he and Ian Duncan Smith are two of a kind while feathering their own nests making anybody who served their country or worked all their lives pay for their greed.
Total disgrace this prime-minister, promised the country a Military Covenant for heroes then his own whips stopped conservatives supporting it being made into Law, whilst supporting the award of a Knighthood to disgraced ex Armed Forces Minister Nicholas Soames whom was sacked because of incompetence, and failing to advise the Defence Select Committee he was also a Director of Roche whom produced Pryridastigamine Bromide (PB) NAPS tablets he then ordered to troops to take, which recent Peer review has been found to have caused ill health for 20% of troops that were ORDERED to take it, selfservatism at its best.
Well, didn’t know that! I was part of a unit that were ordered to take NAPS during Op GRANBY. We were also given jabs to ‘protect’ us against everything they though the Iraqis may throw at us. Interestingly, none of that is contained in my innoculations record that I retrieved when I left the Army in 2005.
Paul
I went sick in the gulf and was told I had NAPS TABLET POISONING but not in my docs…told yrs later because I was seen at a dressing station and not casevac back to UK those medical forms were ROUTENILY DESTROYED. And also no mention of the injections I had either. …
It was Tony Blair and Labour in power back when the system was changed. It was Labour that screwed the country up so badly before and contributed massively towards the recession we just had, but how quickly people forget. People are always whining about Cameron and the Conservatives when half the things they are blaming them for were caused by the previous Labour government and they somehow expect Cameron to be able to throw money at everything despite the recession. Now it looks like people will just stupidly vote Labour back in. I despair.
You should despair – at your own blinkered appraisal of history.
Here’s a nice infographic to put you straight:
The national deficit was always going to increase somewhat, even if borrowing is cut you still have the interest to pay off, plus inflation. But yes it has increased significantly under this current government. And I’m afraid Labour are definitely at least partially responsible for the banking crisis, even Tony Blair admitted as much. It is difficult to say if it would have been any better under another government. Really they are all as bad as each other. But the fact remains that the article above points the finger at David Cameron as if the disabled veterans situation is all his fault and he has betrayed these people without once mentioning that these policies were changed while Labour were in power. The bias is clear to see. A bias I do not appreciate.
The betrayal of disabled veterans may very well have been Cameron’s idea. You say these policies were changed while Labour was in office but I notice you provide no references. Please do so. In any case, I fail to see why you have lumped it together with a comment about the nation’s finances.
The national deficit has not increased significantly under the Coalition – it is the national debt that has doubled. It is important not to confuse the two.
Labour has admitted its failure to re-regulate the banks – Ed Miliband did it on the last leader debate, in fact. However, that is nowhere near as significant as the fact that the banks themselves behaved utterly irresponsibly while promising they could be trusted. These people really shouldn’t need to be forced to do the right thing – I mean, do you need to have a policeman looking over your shoulder all the time to make sure you’re not burgling your neighbour’s house? Of course not. So the international banking crisis deserves to take far more responsibility for what happened than the then-Labour government.
This blog is biased – towards the facts. If you don’t appreciate that, I’m afraid that is your own problem.