Nov 30

The wheelchair sports awards were celebrated at Stoke Mandeville, where the Paralympic movement started in 1948. Various awards were accorded to disabled people for the performances over the year 2009. Daniel Lucker for example got Junior Male Achievement for his outstanding performance as a wheelchair racer.

Other awards includes Junior Female Achievement, Best Female Newcomer, Individual Male Achievement, Coach of the Year and many more.

The ceremony is one of the highlights in the Paralympic calendar and sets the mood for the coming 2012 Paralympic games.

Nov 30

Labour MP Anne Begg is leading the campaign against a government plan to scrap attendance allowance which would affect 1.6 million people.

‘We have got to find more money for social care but that shouldn’t take existing national benefits away which are of tremendous importance. Just as in the NHS we don’t means test, I don’t think in the National Care Service we should means test either.’

Other MPs have joined the battle like Roger Berry, chairman of the Commons disability group, Jeremy Corbyn and others to defend the cause of the over-65s living with the aid.

Around 1.6milliom people claim the attendance allowance, a weekly payment between £47.10 and £70.35. They can spend it on any personal care they need.