Yesterday was the last budget before the general election but was there any good news for people living with a learning disability, autism or mental health problems?
Well he spoke a lot about savers who will be better off with tax concessions, and of course there is his favourite group, the “hardworking taxpayers”, he is raising personal allowances and increasing the minimum wage (still nowhere near a living wage), so I guess if you are one of the lucky 5.8% of learning disabled adults who actually manage to get some paid employment (mostly part-time) you may be a bit better off but what about the other 94.2%, what about their hardworking carers who would love the opportunity to only work a 37hr week and actually get paid too!
Well here comes the bad news, the chancellor revealed even harsher austerity measures up to 2018 leading to a much smaller public sector and then an increase in the final year of the next government before the next general election. He wants to take 12bn off the welfare budget but as pensioner benefits are protected it is hard to see how that will be achieved without massive cuts to disability benefits. I guess this means even more LD adults being told they are fit for work ( that they don’t have a hope in hell of actually getting) and therefore losing their disability benefits.
There was no mention at all of the NHS, but more huge cuts to local authorities will continue to impact on the NHS as the care crisis deepens.
I for one was not comforted at all by this budget, those in most need are still suffering the greatest effects of austerity while those at the top seem to get richer by the minute, if we can’t properly look after the most vulnerable then as a society we have gone badly wrong.