LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW

[part of the 'Disability Matters' & 'Law and Benefit Review' Group]
'for all disability issues’
disability.matters@yahoo.co.uk
www.lawandbenefitreview.co.uk
[01285-861752]
REVIEWS, ARTICLES, COMMENT, UPDATES, LEGISLATION, BENEFITS, PENSIONS, CARING, NHS, BILLS WATCH, ETC.

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Welcome again. The intention of this part of our website is to encourage a proactive role and to inform mainly disabled, infirmed and elderly people of what is going on in the world of disability. We all so often require help, assistance and information about matters whilst trying to run our busy lives in the world we live in. So often rules and regulations change, new laws and legislation are introduced, state benefits change, housing and tenancy rules alter, but nobody appears to inform those of us who will be directly affected by these changes as a matter of course. It is only when we receive a letter or are called to an office for an interview that we find out that the conditions of the benefit or allowance have changed.

It is the person directly involved in these changes that has to venture out themselves to ascertain updates, of say state pensions. The ‘LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW’ or LBR hopes to change all this by the monthly publication of our ‘in-house’ magazine via www.lawandbenefitreview.co.uk . Many government offices such as Jobcentreplus www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk are closing down or relocating miles from their former locations, making the journey difficult for disabled, infirmed and elderly people to reach the new offices for personal interviews and to collect information. We hope that the information we provide may prevent unnecessary journeys. It should be remembered that you have the right to be interviewed in your home if you find travelling difficult. It should be pointed out that any reference to legislation, statutes, state benefits, local authority by-laws, articles, etc. are only relevant to the United Kingdom unless otherwise indicated.

Often legislation given Royal Ascent in the United Kingdom, is only effective in England and Wales. A good example of this is the legislation relating to the UK Blue Badge Parking Scheme, which differs in Scotland, Northern & Southern Ireland. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland and certainly Southern Ireland all make their own laws and effective decisions that only apply to their own country. The Isle of Man again passes many of it’s own laws and the Channel Islands have their own State’s Parliament -The Griffs.

It will be appreciated that operating a website of this nature involves hours of searching public accessible data bases, websites, press outlets, etc. which allows us to constantly up-date articles for publication. It will be noted that in the main, articles referred to in the LBR have been précised but a full account may be obtained from our office. Space restricts us from an ’in-depth’ review of every single individual subjects and articles.

Each month a ‘special report’ will hopefully be featured in the appropriate ‘LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW’, with an in-depth investigation into one particular subject that has recently hit the headlines. We try to maintain the whole file on any subject which as you can imagine grows, month by month. It will be noticed that at the end of some articles a number or word will appear in brackets which is included to help us find the relevant article if anybody requests further details.

All amendments and changes will be reported as and when they occur in the appropriate edition of the LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW but we do have an extra string to our bow thanks to ‘Beehive Gloucestershire’ who have provided the opportunity for us to virtually operate our own website via. www.beehive.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk whereby we can immediately upon receipt of any news worthy of the LBR, include it briefly on the Beehive web page and then elaborate upon it in the following issue of the LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW. This provides an opportunity to immediately inform our friends of any changes in state benefits, pensions, motoring news, access matters, transport, etc. This site is updated almost daily and consists of a précised current edition of the Law and Benefit Review showing what articles are appearing plus a motoring page for all disabled drivers with an emphasis on subjects such as blue badge issues, congestion charging, Motability, petrol prices, mobility issues, etc. as and when they are released.

When accessing the Gloucestershire web-page www.beehive.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk, click on ‘disabled groups’ and then Law and Benefit Review. To increase the content of the article, refer to the appropriate month of the LBR after the ‘beehive’ reference has been made on www.lawandbenefitreview.co. where full details of the article should be found.

All available information on articles we have covered may be supplied in print to be made available to anybody requesting it subject to a charge for photocopying, stationary, postage and a set £2.00 fee per application to cover administration costs which helps operate this website. All major issues such as benefit changes, housing benefits, social security issues, Budget Day announcements, etc. will be covered in full as soon as we receive details of same, as we feel these subjects are important to people.

‘DISABILITY MATTERS’ is the name that was chosen by a group of disabled people in April 2006 who decided to continue with the publication of the ‘LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW’ on-line rather than as a monthly printed publication. We are all disabled and could be easily classed as ‘elderly’. Based just outside Cirencester in Gloucestershire, we are in a good position to serve the disabled, infirmed and elderly residents of all of the Cotswolds which we are informed spreads out into Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Thames Valley, Wiltshire and even Warwickshire if we believe all we read. Our main focus will naturally enough be on all appropriate topics in the European Union and the United Kingdom together with issues in Gloucestershire and the immediate surrounding area under the heading of ‘Community News’. Examples of international subjects that will be covered is the constantly changing motoring laws affecting UK subjects whilst on holiday, care and access within the every growing European Community and the United Nations. Any reference to these subjects is seldom found in print anywhere in the UK.

Many of the issues covered by the ‘LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW’ are not only important to all disabled, infirmed and elderly people but also with our ambulant friends. Obviously all who ‘log-on’ to our site are welcome and we hope that you will be refreshed by its content which will be up-dated at the beginning of each month with a new ‘LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW’ containing information,

ACCESSIBILITY

We are committed to producing our website that can be accessed by all users. We are working hard to ensure that as much is done as possible to ensure that the website will conform to at least the World Wide Web Consortium’s [W3C] to the Double-A Standard and also the UK and EU specifications on accessible websites. Already we are pleased to have achieved the lowest minimum standards and conditions set down by the European Commission by dealing with the ‘must fix’ and ‘should fix’ defects in the website which we have carried out and are pleased to have achieved this, but there is still more to be carried out, and we will endeavour to achieve the higher standards by following guidelines and advice from all quarters.

Rightfully so, the UK’s Disability Rights Commission [DRC] and the Royal Institute for the Blind are leading campaigns to drastically improve websites as currently some 80% of websites in the UK fail to obtain even the minimum standards. The DRC have launched a guide to developing accessible websites which can be viewed on their website www.drc.gov.uk and Arthritis Care http://www.arthritiscare.org.uk have also launched a new easy-to-navigate website.

There are a number of steps that you can take to help yourself achieve maximum viewing power of this website and others. Software is important to enable you to use the facilities provided. If for instance you find difficulty in reading the font size of the text, just simply click on ‘view’ on the top-bar of your computer, then on ‘zoom’ or its equivalent and this will then enlarge or shrink the size of the font/text accordingly, to enable you to read the pages in comfort OR first select the text you wish to enlarge or ‘drag’ it by left clicking with your mouse and holding the mouse button down to highlight the text OR click on your ‘format’ button and then ‘font’ and increase the size of the letters of ‘font’ to the size which you will be able to read. Then left click on the mouse again to remove the highlight. Follow the same instructions to return to your normal font size.

It would appear that simplicity is the answer. The use of recommended font sizes such as Arial which we use throughout the website, keeping pages simple and using plain English, the constant use of recommended layouts and keeping the use of images to a minimal will help achieve our aims.

To help further, there are a number of websites aimed at helping people with difficulties viewing and accessing websites. Two very good ones are www.capability-scotland.org.uk and www.rnib.co.uk We have pages three and four devoted to website accessibility and we hope that these prove helpful for you.

We would welcome any input into the website you may have. Any ideas, what would you like to see, articles, criticism, problems with the font size which you cannot resolve yourself, anything. If you would like further information on any subject matter, then please contact us on 01285 861752 or e-mail us on disability.matters@yahoo.co.uk.

All telephone and cell net phones numbers, email and website addresses, postcodes, etc. are correct at the time of printing in the particularly edition you may find it in. We cannot be responsible for any failings or changes to contact the advertised medium indicated but we will endeavour to amend and update all such contact points when and as we receive them. ‘DISABILITY MATTERS’ is operated by disabled people for disabled people with no question of remuneration whatsoever. The formation of the organisation resulted from frustration with disabilities, boredom, pain and long hours in bed, and in an effort to try and relieve these problems, these projects were under-taken.

LEGAL STATEMENT

You are welcome to our website LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW subject to the terms and conditions indicated. Your further access to the website indicates that you have agreed to our terms otherwise you would have left the website by now.

DISABILITY MATTERS and LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW are totally committed to privacy. We do not collect any personal information about you through this website, but if for some reason or other any details about you appear on the website through an article obtained from a public source such as a newspapers, radio or TV programme, they will be treated in the utmost confidence and released to no other person, business, company, commercial enterprises, organisation, association or authority which is within the guidelines of accepted commercial practice and applicable law.

We will aim to ensure the any information shown on the website is accurate and up-to-date but this is not always possible. If you find any in-accuracies then please be kind enough to contact us so that we may correct or delete any errors as soon as possible. We will not at anytime attempt to contact you unless you have explicitly informed us in writing that you wish to be so contacted and such wishes will be recorded for our protection.

DISCLAIMER

Any information and content that is shown on our website is shown for information purposes only and NOT as a convenience or service to those who have accessed our website and should not be accepted as an alternative to any official website on the subject matter. All such content and information may be changed at any time and for any reason but this is normally due to the information and content being updated for the viewer’s convenience.

Whilst we make every possible attempt to ensure that our website contains up-to-date, accurate and complete information at the time of presentation, no representations or warranties are made either expressed or implied as to reliability, completeness or accuracy shown on the website. No guarantee is given whatsoever as to errors, viruses, defects, worms or any other malicious programming from outside sources. It is recommended that you keep your lap tops and computers fully updated with the manufactures security protections that can be down-loaded often free of charge. In addition, other security devices such as Norton may be purchased for added protection. Everybody needs to have as much security protection on their computers to protect their hard drives. No express or implied terms, conditions, warranties or representation whatsoever with regard to our website or any information or services indicated on any page of our website which is provided to you in good faith will be accepted as ’liability’ in this regard. The limitations and exclusions contained here do not affect your non-excludable statutory rights and only extent permitted by applicable law.

Any reference to any company, business, organisation. association, charity, product, services, local authority, government department, individual, person or European Union, United Nationals or any World Wide context, on the website does not imply that either DISABILITY MATTERS or LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW recommends or has any interest in the product, advertisement or organisation, company, business, etc.

This website will in time have links to other websites for the benefit of the user, which are operated by other organisations, associations, local authorities, governments etc. other than LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW or DISABILITY MATTERS. Both the operators of our website and us have no control or any connection with these websites outside that of www.lawandbenefitreview.co.uk and therefore has no responsibility for their content. It is ‘best practice’ to provide such information as given by such websites but you connect to them at your own risk and you are responsible for taking your own precautions to ensure that such website are clear and free from errors, viruses, defects, worms and other malicious programs or macros by the installation of the appropriate hard and soft ware to your computer.

Naturally, LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW and DISABILITY MATTERS inclusion of any links to other websites does not imply any acceptance or endorsement of the material or product on such websites or any association with the operators of such websites.

All material other than that which is freely available elsewhere on this website is completely protected by registration and related rights. Material may not be downloaded without the express permission of DISABILITY MATTERS in writing. In so doing, no alteration or additions to any content on this website to sell or make commercial use of, to include in any other website, lecture, publication or to openly re-produce by pretence or misuse of same in any way that would result in a breach of copyright. If you wish to use any material on this website which is not freely available for any other reason or use it for commercial purposes then please contact DISABILITY MATTERS at P O Box 5, Unit 6, Corinium Centre, Love Lane, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1AA in writing.

We maintain all our rights to written material on this site which may not be reproduced, copied, distributed, transmitted, published or broadcast as individual articles or as a whole without prior permission in writing from Disability Matters.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

We also maintain our rights in the following names and headings as all rights have been reserved and registered with J4B Grants UK Ltd. [1] Disability Matters [2] Law and Benefit Review [3] Law & Benefit Review. No un-authorised use of the names or headings is permitted by anybody as they are for the sole usage of Disability Matters and Law and Benefit Review:

[1] DISABILITY MATTERS

[2] LAW AND BENEFIT REVIEW

[3] LAW & BENEFIT REVIEW

The website address of www.lawandbenefitreview.co.uk . is registered with Names.co. Ltd [ www.names.co.uk ] and the email addresses of disability.matters@yahoo.co.uk and lawbenefitreview@yahoo.co.uk are registered with Yahoo.co.uk

Alan de Derval et de Moisdon
Chairman of Disability Matters