07/05/2010
The serious issues surrounding autism were highlighted in the 2010 General Election programme with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown live on BBC News 24 and BBC Radio 5 Live, hosted by Nicky Campbell, on the final day of the 2010 campaign.
Ivan Corea of the UK Autism Foundation talked with the Prime Minister on the BBC radio programme, heard by millions across the nation and watched live on BBC News 24, on television - one of the subjects was autism and the need for whoever who gets the keys to Number 10 Downing Street on the 7th of May to do more for parents, carers and the Autism Community in the United Kingdom.
This was a rare moment when the focus was on autism in this election. Ivan Corea said that carers of children and adults with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome were working over 70 hours a week on a pitiful 72 pence an hour. The UK Autism Foundation has been calling for permanent increases in the disability living allowance, the carer’s allowance, child benefit and tax credits. The issue was also highlighted in the recent Media Planet Autism Report published in the Sunday Telegraph, to mark the United Nations World Autism Awareness Day. UKAF has urged David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown to help and support poor families with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.
The Prime Minister said that autism was something he was personally concerned about, he had instructed the DOH and DCSF to do more to help and support parents, carers, children and adults with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Gordon Brown agreed with Ivan Corea that there is a great deal of unfinished business where autism is concerned and if elected he promised to look into the need for an autism strategy for children and an autism strategy for the elderly. Ivan Corea said: ‘My son is 14 years old but who will look after him when he is 64? What will happen to him when I die?’ He told Nicky Campbell and Gordon Brown that many carers think about the future and are concerned about it.
Voting in the General Election is on Thursday 6th of May and the results will be announced on the 7th of May. At the moment all the polls suggest that the election could result in a hung parliament in the UK.