by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news, Paralympics, sport, travel

Tanni Grey-Thompson warns that Paralympic legacy threatened by cuts

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Former athlete, who won 11 gold medals, says welfare reforms are putting wider access to sport for disabled people at risk Britain’s greatest Paralympian, Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson, has warned that disability benefit cuts will affect the development of top athletes and undermine the Games’ key legacy aim of widening access to sport for disabled people. Hundreds of thousands of working age people will lose disability benefits over the next four years as a result of the government’s controversial welfare reforms. Grey-Thompson, who won 11 Paralympic gold medals as a wheelchair athlete, said disability living allowance (DLA) had been crucial in enabling her and many other disabled athletes to participate and compete.

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by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news, lifestyle, Paralympics, sport

Challenge for Paralympics to change lives and perceptions

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Wheelchair basketball medallist Ade Adepitan praises transport aid that is threatened by cuts There’s a sense of fizzing excitement around this summer’s Paralympics. The games are “coming home” – the first forerunner to the Paralympics took place in Stoke Mandeville in 1948 – and for Team GB supporters there are expectations of an avalanche of golden moments to match the second place in the medal table achieved in Beijing. But it’s not just about sporting spectacle, human drama and podium glory in what are predicted to be the biggest Paralympics, with 165 countries set to compete, compared to 146 in Beijing

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by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news, features

A letter to … the brother I almost had

The letter you always wanted to write I am writing to you for the first time in adult English, despite the fact that you can only read simple words and phrases and would not be able to understand the content of this letter unless it were translated into elementary sign language. We were born on the same wartime winter day in 1942

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by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news, Maria Miller

Remploy bidders offered wage subsidy

Remploy bidders offered wage subsidy

Government announces £10m concession in attempt to firm up bids for 36 loss-making factories under threat of closure Employers who take over any of the 36 state-owned Remploy factories facing closure will be offered a short-term subsidy of up to a third of the wages of the units’ disabled workers, the government has announced. The £10m concession has been announced by ministers in an attempt to firm up bids for the factories, which have been declared unviable in their existing forms. The deadline for submission of business plans has been extended

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by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news

Politics Weekly podcast: Greece nears euro exit and disability benefits cut

As Greece prepares for a new round of elections the markets are getting restless around Europe and money is being rapidly withdrawn from banks exposed to a disorderly exit. Meanwhile, in Britain David Cameron has begun openly contemplating the break-up of the single currency while the Bank of England governor has complained of a continent “tearing itself apart”. Joining Tom Clark in the studio to discuss this are Randeep Ramesh , the Guardian’s social affairs editor; Heather Stewart , economics editor of the Observer, and Max Wind-Cowie of the thinktank Demos

by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news

Politics Weekly podcast: Greece nears euro exit and disability benefits cut

As Greece prepares for a new round of elections the markets are getting restless around Europe and money is being rapidly withdrawn from banks exposed to a disorderly exit. Meanwhile, in Britain David Cameron has begun openly contemplating the break-up of the single currency while the Bank of England governor has complained of a continent “tearing itself apart”.

by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news

Live Q&A: Employing disabled people, 24 May, 1 pm – 3pm

Live Q&A: Employing disabled people, 24 May, 1 pm – 3pm

Join us on Thursday to discuss the role played by social enterprises in increasing disabled employment Many social enterprises employ disabled workers. This is part of the social value they generate and can also give them a unique selling point in their chosen market place

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by Mark Glasgow
No Comments » Filed under: disability news, finance

Letters: The human cost of disability cuts

We are concerned about the current and projected impacts on disabled people of the changes to employment and support allowance; the ongoing issues with the work capability assessment; the reduction in local authority social care expenditure; the replacement of disability living allowance by personal independence payment; the closure of the independent living fund and the cap on housing benefit ( Report , 10 May).

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