A Commissioner for Disabled People (Abridged Copy)
- Cost of Living Crisis” for all of us: If this is the difficult starting point, then factor in the additional personal disability for an individual and then factor in the mere thoughtlessness and lack of understanding from the rest of us. That’s what disabled people have to deal with every day! So, who needs a little bit of help and support?
- A Commissioner for Disabled People: In the recent King’s Speech, the Government announced an Armed Forces Commissioner Bill to establish an independent champion to improve service life for personnel and their families. A perfectly reasonable idea. If it’s good enough for the armed forces, then perhaps it’s good enough for disabled people.
- A Commissioner for Disabled People (role and scope): would understand what people with disabilities are up against, they have the power, status and authority to take on large companies and public institutions (such as local councils), making them accountable and answerable in a way that disabled people individually cannot do. The role of such a Commissioner would include:
| Advocacy | Resources, tools and authority |
| Investigation and Clarification | Publicity, pressure and lobbying |
| Support and empathy | Mediation and guidance |
| Advice and access | Precedents, progress and consistency |
- Attrition: All too often people with disabilities may have right on their side, but they are worn down, by constant battles and a lack of resources and support to fall back on. They are left high and dry without the tools to defend themselves and the ability to bring everything together in the face of determined resistance, overwhelming resources and technical intransigence. The moral case is trumped by technicalities, whilst flying in the face of common sense, fairness and justice.
- Do we need a Commissioner for Disabled People? Overwhelmingly yes! If we, through our under resourced police, are unwilling to enforce the existing equality legislation, then we must have a Commissioner who will defend disabled people. We are letting them down and they deserve better. Is there an alternative? Yes…
- Scotland reopens the Independent Living Fund (ILF): In April 2024 the Scottish government re-opened the ILF following its closure by the UK government some years earlier, to avoid a “catastrophe for the disabled”. They had come to the conclusion that local councils couldn’t be relied upon to administer Direct Payments in a fair and consistent manner, so as to do right by disabled people. The Scottish ILF is specifically designed with the user recipient’s health and well-being in mind so that they can spend their DP’s on a very wide variety of leisure and educational activities which promote a more fulfilling and meaningful life, rather than merely “existing”.
Nathan Lee Davies – 1/11/2024
