Budget Pain Worse With HIV

posted: 24/06/2010

Low income is a major problem already for many people living with HIV. The emergency budget and service cuts will now make a bad situation even worse.

Here we try to pick out how the budget that is claimed to be ‘tough but fair’ will affect people living with HIV in NW England. We find out how tough and unfair it will be on many people living with HIV.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis shows that the poorest 10% of the population (typically people on benefits and workers on the minimum wage) will face the worst financial pain of the whole population. Excluding cuts in Disability Living Allowance, Housing Benefit and funding for important public services like social care, over the next five years they worked out that the spending power of the poorest 10% of the population will fall by 2.6%.

Add in the affect of changes in disability living allowance, housing benefit cuts and cuts to public services and the poorer part of the population will suffer even more than this.

The budget will cut the incomes of the richest 10% of the population by just 0.6% compared with over 2.6% for the lowest income tenth of the population. How fair is that?
 

What we have to tell you below makes for depressing reading.

We think people with HIV have a right to know how the planned changes over the next five years could affect them.

These changes are not all cast in stone. They have to go through Parliament and you can tell your MP what you think.
 

Disability Living Allowance
Many people with HIV receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA), a benefit paid at different rates to compensate for disability and mobility problems. The budget announced that people on DLA will have a strict new medical examination; these medical examinations will start in 2013. Some people will lose DLA, others will go onto a lower rate. The government aims to cut spending by £1.4 billion within two years of these medicals starting.

We do not know yet if people who have DLA ‘for life’ will have these medicals.
 

Housing Benefit
Housing Benefit / Housing Allowance will be cut after one year by 10% for people claiming Job Seekers Allowance. The amount of Housing Benefit will also be capped, depending on how many bedrooms you have.This and other changes will be cuts costing people on the benefit £1.8 billion a year.

People will either have to pay the extra for their rent from their other income, move somewhere cheaper or smaller, and if evicted for rent arrears are likely to be refused rehousing as a homeless person. Eviction for rent arrears is treated as making yourself intentionally homeless so people are not entitled to be rehoused.
 

Unemployment
There are around 2.5 million people unemployed and about 0.5 million job vacancies. Unemployment is higher in NW England than most other regions. The job vacancies are often low paid.

The budget alone will increase unemployment by another 100,000 and independent experts expect it to reach close to 3 million.

Job seeking prospects will worsen and it is already harder to find work with a condition like HIV.
 

Slow-burn cuts and taxes
Over the next five years people on benefits will slip further behind in what their benefits will be able to buy and with tax changes.

VAT rises at the beginning of January to 20% and VAT always hits people on low incomes hardest.

Most benefits will be uprated for inflation in a new way that will leave people increasingly worse off. This will cut £6 billion from benefits over the next five years.

Child Benefit is frozen for three years from next April – a £3billion cut. Parents who are working will be compensated by Tax Credits, but that doesn’t help parents who aren’t working.
 

Social Services
Local Government and other public services are most used by people who are on lower incomes. Social Services departments of local councils now face cuts of between 25-33%. Social Services provide essential services to people with HIV and they help fund HIV community services like George House Trust.

The AIDS Support Grant which is used to pay for extra support for people with HIV and community HIV services is no longer protected by a ‘ring-fence’. This means councils can now spend it on whatever they like.

We don’t know yet how cuts of between one quarter and one third will affect essential social services for people with HIV and community organisations but we should start to know more from October. We can expect some painful cuts and changes.
 

NHS cuts
The NHS in NW England has been told to save almost £1 billion within the next three years. We do not know whether this will affect people with HIV.
 

State Pension Age to rise sooner
Details are sparse but the government is planning to raise the age at which men and women will get a state pension sooner than was planned. Men who are now 59 will have to work one more year before they can claim a state pension. Pension age will be 66, not 65 as now, for men from 2016. It does not stop there.

They are consulting about raising the pesnion age to possibly 70. Pension ages for women and men could be raised by one year every five years until it reaches 70 for both sexes. If they start this in 2016 as they say they now plan to, men now aged 40 would not get a state pension until they reach 70. Three out of four people will have some disability by the age of 68. Many people with HIV (among many others) are not fit enough to work until the current pension age of 65, particularly in a region like NW England.

Benefit cuts and changes will make it harder for people with disabilities like HIV to live with a decent fair income before pension age.
 

Expect more pain
In October the government will publish its Public Expenditure Review. We can expect lots more cuts in government spending. The government is already saying that it will try to reduce cuts in education and some other public services (but it has not said that it wants to protect social services) by making even more cuts and changes to benefits.
 

Since the second world war, no government has managed to cut public spending for more than two years in a row. This government plans five years of cuts.
 

Some reputable economic commentators, and President Obama, are warning that European countries are behaving like a panicking herd, cutting spending harshly and that this has a high risk of plunging the world into recession once again. The harsh medicine of cuts could kill economic recovery and make the situation even worse.
 

Heath Inequality
The Marmot Review earlier this year was to help the government plan policies that will end harsh health inequalities. It showed that the poor die 7 years younger than the rich, and the poor become disabled 17 years sooner. Cuts to services and benefits in NW England will worsen the already bad record of ill-health, disabilities and early deaths in this region. More unemployment and low income harms people’s health and well-being.

Reductions in benefits, and those 25%+ public service cuts expected in the Autumn Spending Review are estimated to increase alcohol related deaths by about 2.8% and cardiovascular deaths by 1.2%. Both of these disproportionately affect people living with HIV. Every £80 cut in social welfare spending per person causes this, according to a Europe-wide analysis by Oxford University epidemiologist David Stuckler, reported in the Guardian on 25 June and in the British Medical Journal. There are likely to be between 6,500  and 38,000 more deaths in the next ten years. If the economy worsens, extra deaths rise steeply. Apart from benefits cuts, it is cuts to social services and health budgets especially that cause the most health harm. 

The Treasury is ending the public sector agreement with the NHS to raise the life expectancy of the poor. Marmot presented the government with a vision and plan to make sure everyone has a ‘healthy income’, enough money to live healthy lives and improve life expectancy.

The budget and cuts to come make it even more likely we will go backwards and poorer people and people with disabilities, like many people with HIV in NW England, will face worsening life expectancy and poorer health.

Sit back or act?
These changes are not all cast in stone. They have to be passed by Parliament and you can tell your MP what you think. With your postcode you can contact your own MP here.

Help for people on Low Incomes on our website

Keep HIV in Focus - Crusaid-THT

posted: 16/06/2010

The chief executive of National AIDS Trust urges a continued focus on HIV welfare, following Crusaid's merger with Terrence Higgins Trust, which was announced on Monday.
Deborah Jack expressed her sadness at seeing Crusaid come to an end after 20 years and voiced her worries for the future, in an interview with the PinkPaper.
 

“My main concern is that we’ve lost a charity solely focused with HIV into an organisation which covers all aspects of sexual health. Crusaid always supported those in the greatest need.

The important thing now is making sure … people [living with HIV] are still given the focus they require. Tensions may arise …. as Crusaid staff are used to working on more specific issues around HIV. I am, however, pleased THT have made a public commitment to continue the hardship fund which provides a valuable lifeline for … people living in poverty with HIV."
 

AIDS Support Grant risks
The merger comes just after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles’ announced that the AIDS Support Grant (ASG) will no longer be ring-fenced. This means that this £25.5 million grant (almost £2 million is for NW England) does not have to be spent on social care for people living with HIV. Deborah Jack believes it is important to hold local authorities to account for how they spend this money, otherwise there could be major repercussions, highlighted in a recent report that NAT produced with Crusaid into the need for the Crusaid HIV hardship fund.
 

“In the report we found that 1 in 6 people being treated for HIV applied for help from Crusaid with an average income of just £42 per week. One of the main problems is that many charities rely on contracts from central or local government and without the [AIDS Support Grant] money it might put lots of the smaller charities supporting people on the ground into financial difficulties. A lot of charities use the money they get from the AIDS Support Grant to provide counselling and peer support for people living with HIV. If this money isn’t being spent [on HIV anymore] then these services will be cut and then people in the greatest need will not have the same emotional support, which may lead to … [people living with HIV] becoming isolated and depressed.”
 

Source PinkPaper

Find Out About Membership

posted: 14/06/2010

Thursday 1 July is the date for people who use our services and volunteers to find out about becoming more involved in George House Trust. People using services and volunteers are warmly invited to come and find out more on Thursday 1 July from 5.30pm. You could become a Member. Our membership is free.

Finding Out About Membership is on Thursday 1 July

• refreshments and snacks start at 5.30pm
• the talk and your questions begin at 6
• we will finish by 7pm.

George House Trust is a membership organisation. Members are the people who come to our Annual General Meeting and elect our board of trustees. This board then oversees and steers what we do. Members are the people who can also become trustees on the board.
 

Members Vote
Members also vote on any major strategic decisions for the organisation, either at the Annual General Meeting, or at any special meetings that might be called during a year.
 

Whether you are electing trustees or voting on major strategic decisions, being a member gives you the chance to influence what we do.
 

This event is all about telling you more and answering your questions. You will be able to meet existing trustees and members.

Below we explain in more detail what it is all about for those who are really curious or for people who cannot come to the meeting on Thursday 1 July.

Applying to become a member
To become a member you would need to:

• Use George House Trust services (this includes HIV positive people, carers, family) OR
• Be a current volunteer who is actively involved in the organisation AND
• Able to attend the Annual General Meeting, or to vote by post AND
• Support the aims and objectives of George House Trust.

We need people who know enough about us, support our work, are actively interested in our future, and are able and willing to come to the Annual General Meeting (or vote by post).

You can download the membership forms here:

• Membership information
• Application form
   

Two thirds of our members are living with HIV
We work to make sure that two-thirds of our members are people living with HIV.
We want about 100 members, and will pull names from a hat if too many people apply. We want a good balance of members to represent all our service users and volunteers.
 

Summer Members selection
We only appoint new members once a year – you must apply to be a member by Friday 30th July. By 20 August you should have the written answer to your application.
 

If you have any questions on membership please email 
 

North Manchester General Hospital

posted: 08/06/2010

False rumours about some changes at North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH) are going around. The service at the HIV clinic is not changing. All that is happening is the hospital is making better use of its beds in some of the wards.
 

Cynthia at the hospital tells us that to meet demands on their services and to use their facilities better, the Hospital will be making changes to some Infectious Diseases wards over the coming weeks.

They want people using the hospital to know just what is going to happen and to end worries caused by rumours and wrong information.
 

What ward changes are planned?

• The services now used on ward J5 will be moved to another ward area within the hospital.
• J6 will stop being an Infectious Diseases managed ward.
• Both ward J5 and J6 will reopen as ‘Fast flow wards’ and the Infectious Diseases Department will keep admission rights to those wards.
• J3 and J4 will continue unchanged.
• There are no plans to relocate the Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine to another site.

Cynthia Murphy, Manager – Infectious Diseases Research Department & HIV / Hepatitis Support Coordinator
 

Saving AIDS Support Grant

posted: 26/05/2010

Before the election, the end of ring-fenced AIDS Support Grant for local councils was announced. The new coalition government has now said it will phase out all types of ring-fenced grants for councils.
 

National AIDS Trust has now written to Paul Burstow (Lib Dem, Sutton & Cheam in Surrey), the new Minister for State for Social Care Services, setting out the need to continue to ring-fence AIDS Support Grant after 2011.

It has also written to Anne Milton, the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Public Health.

The new Government has emphasised the importance of public health interventions, and NAT stress the potential public health implications of removing of the ring-fence. Because of this, and given the recent commitment to phase out ring-fenced grants for local authorities, NAT also suggests that the Grant could be paid to PCTs instead, rather than local authorities.
 

Add Your Voice

Organisations and individuals may wish to write to Paul Burstow, or their local MP, to emphasise the vital role of the ring-fenced ASG. NAT’s letter to the minister can be used by people and organisations to make the point that the ring-fence is still needed.
 

Any letters to the minister should reflect the local situation. You might emphasise these points:

• The important role ASG funding currently plays in funding local services
• The impact the loss of the ring fence would have on funding for HIV orgnaisations (it is far less likely that local authorities will continue to fund services without the ring fence - what would happen to people if support is no longer available?)
• Some case studies showing the difference the Grant makes to the lives of individuals and families in your area

NAT 2009 report on The AIDS Support Grant – Making a Difference?

 
Latest Department of Health details on ASG allocations for each council in England and how it should be spent  
 

NW England
AIDS Support Grant 2009-2010 and total HIV population by social services district
download our handy guide for NW England here

The AIDS Support Grant allocations for the current year, April 2010 – March 2011, have not been published – it should be listed as a circular here

Here is gathered information from Freedom of Information requests on AIDS Support Grant in different parts of England 

text of NAT letter to Minister
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