Posts tagged Stephen and Mandy Weeks

The flag at Mobility Compare is flying at half mast today.

Why?

A Supreme Court Judge of Scotland has rejected a ruling stating families of disabled toddlers under the age of three should be allowed to claim mobility benefits.   The thinking being that if a child is under 3 then it already has mobility issues – even if it’s in rude health.

We can see the judge’s logic, but we certainly don’t agree with it.

Nor does he….

Earlier in July 2009, the Supreme Civil Court of Scotland, known as the Court of Session, had ruled that European human rights laws may have been violated by the non-payment of mobility benefits to disabled toddlers (under three years of age) by the Department for Work and Pensions. These toddlers often require special furniture, like adjustable beds. These types of furniture, especially electric adjustable beds, can be highly expensive, and pose quite a burden to parents on limited incomes.

However, this month Judge Lord Brodie rejected the ruling and refused mobility benefits to Stephen and Mandy Weeks, whose son Justin suffers from a rare genetic disorder, forcing him to be dependent on artificial respiratory assistance for survival.

Stephen and Mandy made their first appeal to the court of law in 2005, when the toddler was still just an infant. At the time they had to pay around £500 on a monthly basis for using a disabled taxi service to take him to hospital. Their baby required 150 such trips during his first year alone.

For a family to end up at a nation’s Supreme Court just to get disabled benefits is tragic in a society that rewards its bailed-out bankers with £1.23 billion in bonuses.  Sometimes Mobility Compare feels it’s living in a deeply sick society, one more reason to fly our flag at half mast.

Srabani Sen, the chief executive of the great charity Contact a Family (a UK organization for helping families with disabled children), was in direct disagreement with the ruling. “We strongly believe the current rules barring disabled children under three from claiming mobility benefits is unfair. Around 7,000 of the most vulnerable disabled children in the UK are affected by this rule”, commented Srabani, adding that, “Some children need to travel with bulky and life-saving equipment. It is not down to their age that they have mobility difficulties. And yet their families have to struggle without the mobility benefit for three years before it can be paid”.

Tragic indeed.  Who said the law’s an ass?