Darlington woman with disability tells us about coping with cost of living
There's a big increase in some bills from this month
A Darlington woman - who campaigns against cuts for disabled people - is telling us about her lived experiences in coping with the cost of living.
This month marks a big increase in some bills - with the conflict between Iran, America and Israel also pushing up fuel prices.
Jenny Joyce is from Darlington and she's been disabled for 20 years and has had to reduce her working hours at her job. She uses universal credit to top up her wages.
Jenny said: "It's personal and individual to every disabled person what they use their additional money for; but for myself, I use additional energy costs to charge my electric wheelchair and run my stairlift. I need additional heating costs because I really struggle with keeping warm and my joints get really painful if I get cold, so I require to keep the heating on.
"I pay privately for physiotherapy every two weeks to support me with pain and stiffness. And because I've got issues with my stomach, I can't take lots of painkillers, so I need to pay privately for that.
"I can't go anywhere without using transport. So everywhere I need to go, even if it's to the shop, I need to use transport. I can't walk there.
"It's really hard to actually claim universal credit and it's not an easy process. For a start, you're not entitled to it for at least 12 weeks. So even when you put in the process, you won't get it for the first 12 weeks anyway. And I think it took about six months for it to all be sorted, so in that time, I was really struggling to manage.
"I was also coming to terms with struggling with my health and my disability, so it wasn't an easy thing at all. And I think that's where people often think, 'oh, well, you know, it's dead easy to get disability benefits.' It really isn't. It's a really hard process and it really takes it out of people.
"Most disabled people do want to work, but not all disabled people are able to, and even for those who do want to, there are so many structural barriers in place, so not all employees are supportive, not all employer buildings are accessible, and getting to and from work, there's huge issues with transport.
"Getting to and from work, buses are not always accessible, and even when they are, if there's a disabled person already on there, or somebody with a pushchair, the bus will just drive past you. Then getting to and from the bus, you know, with broken pavements, no dropped kerbs, and then accessible taxis are really hard to come by."
Jenny has worked within a Disabled People’s Organisation for two decades and is close to completing her Master's degree in Inequality and Society. Drawing on both her professional and lived experience, she says she is deeply committed to advancing equity for people with disabilities, and she has recently been appointed Peer Researcher at Toynbee Hall. Over the past year, Jenny has been actively involved in Crips Against Cuts North East and Disabled People Against Cuts North East, advocating against proposed benefits cuts.