I found this link while reading someone elses blog. A huge thank you because like you say in your blog this is going unoticed, because everyone is so caught up in the housing benefit story.
I know of a few disabled children all with varying degrees of ability but all needing round the clock care. One child I know needs nappies since part of his disability means he does not know when he needs to go to the bathroom. Now the NHS pay for some of his nappies, and his mother is quite good at knowing how many he needs and plans accordingly. However not all children are like that, some need more than the 3 nappies per day the NHS supplies.
So if your child is in need of nappies provided for their medical care, and you run out you have to buy them. Well dont worry thats not to bad we all had to buy nappies for our children didnt we?? Yes for a year or two not life. The cost of the nappies per year is not something a household with non disabled children needs to budget for.
Then you have the extra electricity to wash the clothing if your child soils themselves, again costing money a non disabled hosehold wouldnt have to pay. Yes we all wash our childrens clothing after its been worn, however think about how much washing is done when a child is being toilet trained.
I remember when I was toilet training my children, I never seemed to be away from the bathroom or the kitchen washing their soiled clothing. I remember joking with my husband that "if I run between the bathroom and the kitchen one more time I swear the floorboards will wear out and I will fall through!!!" and I was not exaggerating.
Now can you imagine having to keep changing your childs nappy not just for the 1 or 2 years most of us do but for 10 or more years in some cases a life time??
This is no way a dig at parents of disabled children I hope people read the linked article and understand how idiotic an idea it is.
What about the children who do not sleep or who sleep so little parents work in shifts to keep the child occupied long into the night?? Will this child not need heat and light?? Does that not also cost??
What about the child who has seizures?? Will this child not need specialist equipment?? Equipment which will no longer be paid for by the little extra help the £54 per week on CTC pays for at the moment.
What about the child who has special dietary requirements?? I'm not meaning a child who refuses to eat vegetables but children who if they do not eat a special diet will die, the ones needing peg fed, through a tube. The parents of these children in my experience tend to worry their child is not getting enough nutrients, some can be prone to illness such as cold and flu's more often because they have lowered immune systems. Not all granted but the ones I know about. Now if a child is more prone to illness they will need more care than say an average child. Which brings us to what . . . cost. How will the parents pay for this, when they discover they are only being recognised to half the value they were??
It is said that a household with a disabled person will cost on average 37% more to run than the same household with no disabilities. So why are this government dead set on disabled children already at a disadvantage being pushed further and further into poverty???
Or are they expecting that pregnant women will choose to abort an "abnormal" foetus?? That way saving future governments from having to pay any form of DLA or whatever it will be called by then, to the unborn children.
I find this all the more disturbing due to the leader of the government being the father to a disabled child, a man who after his severely disabled son died promised parents like my friends they would be looked after and they could trust him with their children's lives and futures.
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