State targets parents of children with disability

national | health / disability issues | opinion/analysis Thursday September 07, 2006 13:53 by Miriam Cotton

Benefits for families slashed

We're all aware of the contempt with which people with disability and their families are regarded by the state. And as if the present government were not already unpopular enough among this community of people, they have decided arbitrarily to slash the Carers Allowance which mothers of children with disability are entitled to.

In my case I have had my allowance slashed from over 130 euro a week down to 36 euro. I now have to spend time and energy I can ill-afford challenging this decision through a lengthy and protracted process designed, most people believe, to break you down.

Another woman I know who lives in Limerick has told me that her Account Manager at the Bank of Ireland has said they have had several customers complaining about the same treatment and its affect on their finances. Some of them have spent months on end fighting similar decisions only to have the decision reversed and their benefits increased. In my case, our income is less than the income of some people who have been awarded more benefit than I was in receipt of before it was cut. The lady at the Bank of Ireland says that it looks as though particular people are being targetted because there is no consistency about who is affected. And because most people feel embarassed talking about such matters they are not communicating with each other and therefore dont realise what is happening.

I may be attaching way too much importance to myself but might there be a connection between the fact that I have complained loudly on Indymedia and in other places about the governments' treatment of people with disability and the fact that I have been targetted three years running to go through the assessment process when most people only get to do it ever three years or so? And now that I am doing my best to make disability an issue before the election campaign, I find that my allowance is more or less withdrawn. Social welfare, Irish style. Will we ever stop electing bullies in this country?