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Devoted mum to lose allowance for vulnerable sons (From Daily Echo)
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Devoted Southampton mum to lose allowance for vulnerable sons
10:50am Tuesday 19th February 2013 in Politics
By Jenny Makin, Crime Reporter
DEVOTED: Margaret Tobutt, 72, with her twin sons, Allan, left, and Mark, right, at home in Southampton.
IT has been her full-time job every day for almost 50 years.
Margaret Tobutt has devoted her life to caring for her twin boys, who have severe learning difficulties and disabilities.
The 72-year-old has saved Southampton City Council hundreds of thousands of pounds by keeping Mark and Allan, 49, at home when she could easily have put them into the system where they would be found accommodation and given carers to look after them.
But the small yet significant weekly rent allowance they both receive has helped her to carry out essential repairs from damage they cause, from broken chairs and toilet seats to wornout carpets and broken banisters.
Now council chiefs are planning to remove that vital £40 a week from each of her son’s benefits – leaving Margaret worried about how she and her sons will afford to continue to live together.
Changes have been made to the adult social care budget, which will see Margaret and 90 other families who care for vulnerable adults hit by funding cuts.
Council chiefs say a review of the finances unearthed the payments which they claim they should never have been making in the first place, as it was unfair compared to other care users in the city. Under the proposals, home day care, used by 2,300 mainly elderly people, will also be hit, with huge hikes in the cost of the service.
It’s a decision that has angered both families and opposition councillors so much that it has been called in for review in the hope it can be put on hold.
Margaret, who has lived with and cared for her sons singlehandedly for the past 30 years, said: “I am very angry with the council because they are attacking the wrong people – the vulnerable people.
“They need to listen to us and rethink this, and if they are in any doubt they want to come and try it for themselves first.
She added: “They say they’ve had a consultation, but I had no knowledge of any meetings about this and I would have liked to have known. We are saving the city council millions of pounds by choosing to care for our children, who are adults, at home.”
As well as severe learning difficulties, Mark and Allan also have conditions which affect their limbs, balance and coordination.
Tasks like washing the dishes, cooking and loading a washing machine are impossible for them.
The twins spend several days a week visiting day centres, but need constant supervision when they are at home.
Margaret said: “I only put the heating on when the boys are home, because I cannot afford it the rest of the time, and I have to budget for everything we want to do. I am worried. I don’t know how I will cope once the money has gone.”
More stories about Southampton's cuts
- Disabled have been 'abandoned by the council'
- Boy offers money from the tooth fairy to save after-school club
- REPRIEVE: Savage cuts and hikes in fees for vital care put on hold
- Devoted mum to lose allowance for vulnerable sons
- Savage cuts threaten some of city's most vulnerable
- Fight over cuts just starting, say council rebels
- Worst cuts ever voted through by council
- Southampton council budget meeting - live updates
Comments(21)
massimoosti
says...
11:09am Tue 19 Feb 13
Twisted FUBAR UK
St Retford
says...
11:15am Tue 19 Feb 13
massimoosti wrote:What?
Yet put a head scarf on her head and learn an eastern european accent and theyll roll out the red carpet and print a leaflet in her language telling her how to claim on arrival.
Twisted FUBAR UK
On the inside
says...
11:20am Tue 19 Feb 13
massimoosti wrote:racist scum
Yet put a head scarf on her head and learn an eastern european accent and theyll roll out the red carpet and print a leaflet in her language telling her how to claim on arrival. Twisted FUBAR UK
bazzeroz
says...
11:34am Tue 19 Feb 13
Dasal
says...
11:39am Tue 19 Feb 13
eurogordi
says...
12:17pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Dasal wrote:No comment can be racist if it is backed up by factual evidence.
Does it make it any less racist......even if true ??
If there is no evidence to support comments then it would be racist.
southy
says...
12:19pm Tue 19 Feb 13
eurogordi wrote:even if it is back up by evidence (which is highly unlikely) it can still be a racist remark.
Dasal wrote:No comment can be racist if it is backed up by factual evidence.
Does it make it any less racist......even if true ??
If there is no evidence to support comments then it would be racist.
St Retford
says...
12:20pm Tue 19 Feb 13
It's a useful divide and rule tactic to blame foreigners or the public sector or the benefit "scroungers" or whoever. But really, in an age in which there are no natural scarcities of anything, the only reason for anyone to go poor is because people at the top are rubbish at sharing.
ohec
says...
12:22pm Tue 19 Feb 13
Shoong
says...
12:29pm Tue 19 Feb 13
southy wrote:Why don't you visit them at home and deliver some empty promises? Sounds like they need a boost.
Uncaring Capitalist what do you expect they dont want a fair system, 1 good thing is, at lest she was not sent to prison yet like what happen in Brighton
St Retford
says...
12:31pm Tue 19 Feb 13
ohec wrote:You sound LOVELY.
Yet another bleeding heart story, the only thing that disgusts me is the fact they have been paying out all of this money for years and nobody knows why or when it started. We have a welfare system in this country that should be responsible for all such payments thus ensuring that everybody gets treated equally. The article implies that she has done us all a favour by looking after her own offspring ?? there will be plenty of time for the state to look after them when she has gone.
sotonboy84
says...
12:32pm Tue 19 Feb 13
eurogordi wrote:People are far too quick to jump on the band wagon screaming 'RACIST'! Any negative comment involving somebody that isn't white British does NOT make it racist.
Dasal wrote: Does it make it any less racist......even if true ??No comment can be racist if it is backed up by factual evidence. If there is no evidence to support comments then it would be racist.
If it's an attack on anybody then it's an attack on the misguided mess that this country is in, and not a racist remark.
Walter K
says...
12:33pm Tue 19 Feb 13
In current times, individuals with far less on their plate than this poor woman extrapulate every last penny they can from the "safety net".
stay local
says...
1:53pm Tue 19 Feb 13
southy wrote:Absolutely right Southy I am sure your union based candidate would agree.....
Uncaring Capitalist what do you expect they dont want a fair system, 1 good thing is, at lest she was not sent to prison yet like what happen in Brighton
that this women has taken the job of a union member.
bigfella777
says...
1:59pm Tue 19 Feb 13
massimoosti wrote:I don't know why I am even commenting on this. "Put a head scarf on her head" What as opposed to a foot scarf?
Yet put a head scarf on her head and learn an eastern european accent and theyll roll out the red carpet and print a leaflet in her language telling her how to claim on arrival.
Twisted FUBAR UK
You show me any Eastern Europeans in council accommodation claiming benefits and I will personally give you £10 for every household you can prove.
IDIOT!
Aisha1
says...
4:33pm Tue 19 Feb 13
10 Minute Man
says...
5:45pm Tue 19 Feb 13
We'll all have to tighten our belts, its only fair. If we get too tough, all these valuable businesses will leave and take their minimum wage jobs and tiny tax contributions away to some other lucky country.
From the look and sound of it, this woman is by no means at the worst end of what is about to happen to the poor and disabled of our country. After IDS' reforms kick in a bit more, I suspect the result will be more suicides and civil unrest.
Outside of the Box
says...
6:32pm Tue 19 Feb 13
wake up
says...
12:46am Wed 20 Feb 13
"PROCLAIMERS"
good to see they still live at home with their mum,,
"I would walk 500 miles & i would walk 500 more "
" no benefit no more,
sky no more ,
a giro no more
, pies no more"
solomum
says...
5:19pm Wed 20 Feb 13
massimoosti wrote:Do not believe everything you read on Facebook, which is where pictures of this leaflet have been shown. The camera most certainly does lie nowadays with photoshop etc.
Yet put a head scarf on her head and learn an eastern european accent and theyll roll out the red carpet and print a leaflet in her language telling her how to claim on arrival.
Twisted FUBAR UK
southy says...
11:02am Tue 19 Feb 13