Chronically Jenni

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I'm genuinely at breaking point with Access to Work. In June, I applied to renew my government disability support that enables me to work. I was getting 24 hours a week at £30 an hour for support workers. My needs have increased, so I requested 32 hours. They awarded just 8 hours at £13.72. An 85% cut. I requested a reconsideration over 6 weeks ago. I've had no update. But DWP has found time to provide explanations of my case to BBC Radio 4 & Sir Stephen Timms (Minister for Disability) when they contacted the DWP on my behalf. They told the BBC they'd explained my reduction during my assessment call. Yet they've admitted to Sir Stephen that they hadn't actually told me how many hours I'd get or what hourly rate they'd pay. And when I questioned what support they'd cover, I asked the Case Manager to wait before the call was cut off. I reported that at the time. Now DWP claims the call ended "professionally" after listening to their recording of the call. I have 2 witnesses who dispute that, & I've had to request the recording of the call. This week they rejected a payment for support provided within my original grant. When I called, I was repeatedly told there was no funding left. My online account showed £190.01. Hours later, they confirmed a payment for exactly £190.01. How am I supposed to trust a system that keeps giving me contradictory information, while I'm still waiting for answers about my own case? Meanwhile, my support workers are accepting temporary pay cuts to keep us all working but I am still having to personally top up both the wage & hours just to keep functioning I've spent the last couple of weeks sitting in meetings about speaking engagements booked months ago, having to tell organisers I don't know how I'm going to get there because I no longer have enough support hours. I just want to be able to do my job. It shouldn't be this hard. And it isn't just me. Disabled people are exhausted from fighting for the absolute basics. DWP needs to be held accountable, and we need allies to stand with us and demand that accountability. We want to work, not spend our lives fighting the very system that's supposed to make that possible

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It’s Black History Month here in the UK, and when we talk about disability history, the people whose stories get told are overwhelmingly white. But Black disabled people have been part of British history for centuries. Today we are looking at important figures from the 1700s & 1800s: 1. Ignatius Sancho. Born around 1729, he was a writer, composer & shopkeeper in London. Ill health forced him to leave his job as a valet, but his shop gave him the property qualification needed to vote. He became one of the earliest Black people known to have voted in a British parliamentary election & his writing was an important early Black voice against slavery. 2. Billy Waters was a Black sailor who lost a leg while serving in the Royal Navy & later became one of the most famous street performers in Regency London. We find him fascinating, we so rarely picture Black disabled people when we think about Regency Britain. But Billy became a celebrity. His image appeared in prints, books & on stage, and even now, historians are still uncovering his impact on popular culture. 3. Mary Prince was born into slavery in Bermuda in 1788. Years of brutal forced labour left her living with severe rheumatism, at times unable even to stand. After coming to Britain, she dictated The History of Mary Prince, the first published account by a Black woman of her own enslavement. Her testimony gave British readers a first-hand account of the reality of slavery while the abolition campaign was still being fought. 4. William Cuffay was a Black disabled tailor who became one of the leading figures in the Chartist movement, one of the biggest working-class political movements in British history. The Chartists fought for major democratic reforms, including extending the right to vote, and Cuffay became so prominent that newspapers referred to his followers as “the Black man and his party”. Black disabled people didn’t suddenly appear in British history, they were already there and we all should know more about them. Did you know these name? Who else would you put on the list? Let us know in the comments and follow along for part 2 #BlackHistoryMonth #DisabilityHistory

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It’s Black History Month in the UK & disability history is still incredibly white. In part 1, we looked at Black disabled people shaping Britain in the 17 & 1800s but that history continues. Here are 6 Black disabled changemakers from the 1900s to today that you should know: 1. Una Marson was a Jamaican broadcaster who became the BBC’s 1st Black producer. While living with serious mental ill-health, she developed Caribbean Voices, giving Caribbean writers a platform on British radio, helping to change whose voices were heard. 2. Claudia Jones lived with the long-term effects of TB & serious heart and lung problems, but became one of the most important Black activists in post-war Britain. She founded the West Indian Gazette, campaigned against racism & helped lay the foundations for what would become Notting Hill Carnival. 3. Milliedrette Hill became disabled as a teenager & co-founded the Black Disabled People’s Association at a time when the disability movement was overwhelmingly white, the organisation created space for Black disabled people to organise around the racism & ableism they were experiencing. 4. Dr Ossie Stuart helped change the way Britain talked about race & disability. His influential work challenged the idea that Black disabled people simply experienced racism plus ableism as separate things, instead examining how race & disability combine to create distinct experiences of discrimination. 5. Deborah Williams OBE spent decades creating structural change across disability arts, tv & film, helping implement disability equality legislation across the cultural sector and designing the BFI Diversity Standards, which now influence funding & representation across the British screen industries. 6. Marsha de Cordova, a blind woman, became the first black, disabled serving MP when she was elected in Battersea. She served as Shadow Minister for Disabled People & has continued campaigning on disability rights and sight loss in Parliament. Black disabled people haven’t just been present in British history; they’ve helped change our media, culture, politics & the disability rights movement itself. Their names deserve to be part of the history we