‘Truly shocking’ figures expose disabled people’s ‘precarious’ financial situation
“Truly shocking” official statistics have exposed the deepening impact of the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show how disabled people in Britain are being hit even harder by rising prices than non-disabled people.
They show that many disabled people are being forced to take drastic action to stay afloat, even before further expected price rises this autumn, including steep increases in fuel costs.
But Chloe Smith, the minister for disabled people, this week declined to say whether she was concerned by the ONS figures, or the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people.
The ONS statistics show that 42 per cent of disabled adults* are spending less on food and other essentials, compared with 31 per cent of non-disabled people, because of the rise in the cost-of-living.
They also show that half of disabled people (48 per cent) said they bought less food in the last fortnight, against 38 per cent of non-disabled people.
And of those who pay energy bills, 13 per cent of disabled people said it was already “very difficult” to pay those bills, and another 38 per cent said it was “somewhat difficult”, compared with six per cent and 29 per cent of non-disabled bill-payers.
One disabled couple told Disability News Service this week of their concerns that they would reach a point later this year when they would have to decide whose dietary and heating requirements they could afford.
John, from Brighton, said his wife, who has cancer, has been told by her consultant that she must have heat for her blood circulation, and must eat high-protein foods.
But John, who has paralysis and epilepsy after a brain haemorrhage 20 years ago, has now been diagnosed with diabetes and so needs his own expensive specialist diet.
They have calculated that their food bill is currently more than £650 a month, their fuel bill has risen to £208 a month from £120, and even though neither of them are on means-tested benefits they can no longer afford life insurance or home insurance.
But he said: “Although we will find it difficult, we are luckier than many other disabled people.”
The ONS figures show that 46 per cent of disabled people are cutting back on non-essential journeys in their own vehicle, against 40 per cent of non-disabled people; and 55 per cent are using less fuel in their home (against 50 per cent of non-disabled people).
The report also says that 23 per cent of disabled people have had to borrow more money or use more credit than usual in the last month, compared to a year ago, against 17 per cent of non-disabled people.
And asked if their household would be able to afford to pay an unexpected, but necessary, expense of £850, only 49 per cent of disabled people said yes, compared with 64 per cent of non-disabled people.
The analysis is based on answers from nearly 14,000 adults questioned between late March and mid-June.
The Disability Poverty Campaign Group is asking disabled people to write to their MPs to urge them to push for action to help disabled people survive “surging energy bills”.
Fazilet Hadi, head of policy at Disability Rights UK, one of the campaign group’s members, said: “The ONS findings yet again show that disabled people are being disproportionately hit by the cost-of-living crisis.
“It is truly shocking that 42 per cent of disabled people are cutting back on food and essential expenditure, compared with 31 per cent of non-disabled people.
“The precarious financial situation of disabled people is further illustrated by the fact that only 49 per cent could meet an unexpected bill of £850 compared with 64 per cent of non-disabled people.
“The Disability Poverty Campaign Group is calling on government to urgently increase benefits in line with inflation, which is currently at 9.4 per cent and set to rise, provide targeted support to disabled people to meet rising energy costs, and stop care charges and other deductions being taken from benefits.”
Although Smith declined to comment on the ONS figures, or describe her level of concern about the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on disabled people, a DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “We know that living with a long-term illness or disability can impact on living costs, which is why financial support is available to those with disabilities or caring responsibilities and we urge people to check they are getting all the help to which they are entitled.
“Eight million low-income households will get at least £1,200 of direct payments this year, with a £150 top-up payment for disabled people.
“And we are also helping more disabled jobseekers to find, retain and progress in fulfilling work, offering specialist programmes such as Access to Work, paired with personal support from our work coaches and disability employment advisers.”
*Those aged 16 and over
11 August 2022
Silence from Truss and Sunak on how they would improve lives of disabled people
The two candidates to be the next leader of the Conservative party – and to take over from Boris Johnson as prime minister – have refused to say how they would improve the lives of disabled people if they won the contest.
After a campaign that has almost completely ignored questions around disability, both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were unable to suggest a policy they would introduce to improve the life chances of disabled people.
They have also refused to say what they believe is the greatest achievement of 12 years of Conservative-led government in improving the rights of disabled people.
Despite repeated requests from Disability News Service (DNS) over the last 12 days, neither candidate has been willing to answer five questions about the actions they would take to support disabled people if they become prime minister.
Sunak’s camp did not even acknowledge any of the text messages or emails sent by DNS – other than through an automatic email acknowledgement – although a spokesperson for Truss did eventually apologise for the failure to respond.
But nearly two days after this apology, Truss’s team had still failed to answer the questions.
Work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey and Chloe Smith, the minister for disabled people, are both supporters of Truss’s leadership campaign.
Both Truss and Sunak were asked what steps they would take as prime minister to end the crisis in adult social care that is driving tens of thousands of disabled people into debt because they cannot afford to pay council care charges.
They were also asked what steps they would take to address the accessible housing crisis.
And they were asked if they would order a public inquiry into deaths linked to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions, following the publication of the Deaths by Welfare timeline that has brought together evidence of such links stretching back 30 years.
Each candidate was also asked for the greatest disability-related achievement of 12 years of Conservative-led government, and for a single policy they would introduce as prime minister to improve the life chances of disabled people.
The Conservative party had failed to comment by noon today (Thursday) on the candidates’ failure to answer the questions.
The failure of the two Conservative candidates to answer questions about disability policy contrasts with the Labour leadership election in early 2022, where three of the four candidates – Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey – responded in depth to questions from DNS.
The fourth candidate, Emily Thornberry, did not answer the questions, before failing to reach the final stage of the contest shortly afterwards.
11 August 2022
Claimants win chance to appeal ‘punch in the guts’ court ruling on £20 uplift
A disabled benefit claimant has spoken of his relief at securing the chance to challenge a court’s finding that the government did not break the law when refusing to offer recipients of so-called legacy benefits a £20-a-week increase during the pandemic.
Philip Wayland is one of four claimants given permission to appeal February’s high court ruling that ministers behaved lawfully when failing to offer recipients of benefits such as employment and support allowance (ESA) the same £20-a-week increase given to people receiving universal credit (UC).
That ruling sparked anger and frustration among disabled people, with one ESA claimant describing it as “a punch in the guts to every claimant who has been hanging onto the hope that someone in a position of power and authority would acknowledge and rectify the discrimination that we have suffered”.
Wayland told Disability News Service this week: “It is so blatantly wrong that help was denied to people who were so evidently in need.
“On any moral level the case should be clear cut.
“It is frustrating that we have to go through this to prove something that seems so obvious.
“Relieved is the best word, to finally get the news that they are going to accept and hear the case again, after what was quite a frustrating wait.”
He said the current cost-of-living crisis has made the case even more important than it was when they launched it through solicitors Osbornes Law* last year.
Wayland said he had been “more angry” at the start of the legal case when the injustice was “more raw” and figures showing how many people had died from Covid were being released every day.
But he said the importance of trying to secure payments of more than £1,500 “for so many people who are financially struggling even more now, even if they are not at risk so much from Covid”, meant the stakes were “still as high, even if my anger has plateaued”.
He said such a payment “would really help people at the moment who are quite literally on their knees”.
The high court found in February that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not breach the European Convention on Human Rights by increasing the standard allowance of universal credit by £20-a-week but not applying a similar increase to 1.9 million ESA claimants, and claimants of jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) and income support.
Whilst the high court accepted that there was discrimination towards disabled people on legacy benefits, the judge ruled that the difference in treatment was justified.
Mr Justice Swift had accepted the justification put forward by work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey that the UC increase was intended to provide extra support to those who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic and were forced to claim UC for the first time.
He found in favour of DWP even though the court had heard evidence that those new to benefits tended to have higher rates of savings and were therefore better able to meet the costs of the pandemic than existing claimants.
The court had also heard that hundreds of thousands of disabled people, who were already disproportionately affected by poverty, had been forced to survive on “historically low rates” of benefits during a pandemic that had led to a significant rise in their cost of living.
In March 2021, as part of its #20More4All campaign, Disabled People Against Cuts had delivered mail bags full of the testimonies of disabled people to DWP, the Treasury and 10 Downing Street, describing the financial struggles they had faced during the pandemic.
The uplift was maintained for 18 months, between 30 March 2020 and 5 October 2021.
Now, more than five months after the high court ruling, the Court of Appeal has given Wayland and three other claimants permission to appeal that decision.
Two of the claimants were in receipt of ESA and the other two received income support and JSA.
Martin Keatings, a carer and another of the claimants, welcomed the Court of Appeal’s decision.
He said: “It was wrong for Mr Justice Swift to say that those who were already on benefits were more accustomed to surviving on a low income, particularly with respect to [disabled people] and unpaid carers, the latter of whom received no assistance with the extra personal protective equipment they required to fulfil the same role as their private and public sector counterparts.”
He added: “It is simply not good enough to say on one hand that, yes, legacy claimants were discriminated against, but that it was proportional – discrimination of this type can never be proportional.
“It is my sincere hope that the court will see sense, particularly in light of current strains on carers, and overturn the previous decision.”
Wayland, Keatings and their fellow claimants now have to wait again to learn when the appeal will be held.
A DWP spokesperson said: “It would not be appropriate for us to comment while the litigation is ongoing.
“It has always been the case that claimants on legacy benefits can make a claim for universal credit if they believe they will be better off.”
In April, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) finally published figures proving that at least one million disabled people would eventually be left worse off through the move to universal credit.
That report concluded that just as many claimants of ESA would eventually lose out as would gain from the move across to UC, once the rollout of the new system was complete.
And Chloe Smith, the minister for disabled people, has told MPs on the Commons work and pensions committee that it was too expensive and too much effort to produce figures that would show what happened to disabled people who made a claim for universal credit and had been put through the work capability assessment process (see separate story).
*He and his fellow claimants were also represented by barristers Jamie Burton QC, of Doughty Street Chambers, and Desmond Rutledge, of Garden Court Chambers
11 August 2022
Disabled spectators ‘told to move so they would not be in Commonwealth Games photos’
Commonwealth Games organisers have been accused of “shocking” discrimination after disabled spectators were told to move from an accessible viewing area so they would not be seen in photographs of a table-tennis medal ceremony.
The area reserved for disabled spectators was directly behind the medal rostrum at the NEC in Birmingham, and staff cleared it in advance of the award of medals after the men’s singles final on Monday morning.
Dr Paul Darke, co-founder of the disability arts organisation Outside Centre, was one of the disabled spectators watching the final and had attempted to move into the empty space behind the rostrum, but he was told by a staff member to move “so you’re not in the photos”.
He then realised that all the other disabled spectators had been cleared from the area.
He was told: “We want you to move so you’re not in the photos when they take the pictures of the medal-winners.”
Darke then realised that non-disabled people sitting just behind and above the accessible area had been allowed to remain in their seats.
He said: “At any sports event there is normally crowd behind every single scene.
“It is just because they had the opportunity to do it that they did it, and it was just because it was disabled people.
“There were non-disabled people above us who they didn’t move, so it was inexcusable.”
He added: “The most annoying thing was I let them do it. I was shocked and incredulous at what had happened but afterwards I blamed myself for letting them do it.
“Non-disabled people wouldn’t have put up with it, but we’re used to it and often don’t complain in the moment.
“It was just incredibly disappointing.”
He said he later began to feel “incredulous” at what had happened, particularly as he had enjoyed his experiences as a wheelchair-user watching the cricket and cycling time trial.
Darke is now writing to the Commonwealth Games to lodge a complaint about how disabled people were treated, and he will point out that what happened contrasted with Birmingham 2022’s message of inclusivity.
He said: “The dialogue of the games from the very beginning to the end was about inclusivity, and then to experience that was just like a gaping hole of practice over policy and principle.
“It was just counter to everything that had been said.”
He also pointed to access problems within the accessible viewing area, as some wheelchair-users “really did have to stretch and struggle” to see over the top of the railings, an issue that was also raised at the 3×3 basketball event.
A Birmingham 2022 spokesperson said of the medal ceremony issue: “This is the first time that this has been raised with us.
“Now we have been made aware of this, we will conduct a thorough investigation and reach out to the spectator to communicate our findings.”
She had declined to say by noon today (Thursday) if Birmingham 2022 accepted there had been a problem with wheelchair-users struggling to see over the tops of barriers, and how this had been allowed to happen.
Instead, she provided a statement that was released last week after concerns were raised about access at the 3×3 basketball.
The statement said: “Our games is the first to have a dedicated accessibility team and we have also worked with our accessibility advisory forum to provide feedback to us in planning.
“We work with our venues to continually improve the experience for everyone, and we would encourage spectators to speak to our team to see how we can enhance their visit.”
11 August 2022
Motability customers describe delays, shortages and steep price rises
Motability customers have spoken of lengthy delays, shortages, and steep rises in advance payments as they try to replace their ageing vehicles through the disabled people’s car scheme.
They spoke out after Disability News Service (DNS) revealed last week that Motability Operations – the company which runs the scheme* – had admitted that thousands of its customers were being affected by supply and delivery delays in the global car industry.
Disabled activist Michelle Maher described last week how she had been waiting since last November for the Mini Countryman she ordered through the scheme to be delivered.
But after reading her story, other disabled customers have come forward to describe the problems they are facing.
Dave, from Surrey, said the advance payments for cars on the scheme had “jumped across the board”.
He needs to lease an automatic with a flat boot, and he has previously been able to choose from options with a £300 advance payment, but the current cheapest advance payment now is £949, with two Vauxhall Astra versions at this price, while the next most expensive are £1,499, £1,999 and £2,849.
He told DNS: “It means I’ll have to go with an unsuitable vehicle as I can’t be without one.
“My ability to save up for my next vehicle has been particularly affected by the increased fuel prices.”
But he did praise Motability for being “very proactive” about letting him know of the “high probability of delays”.
John, from Brighton, said he has been waiting eight months and still has not been told when his new car will be built, let alone delivered.
He ordered his car on 10 December 2021, and the original delivery date was April 2022, but he has been repeatedly contacted to tell him of another delay.
Although Motability has extended his three-year lease, which had been due to run out in April, it means he is now paying the full monthly rental fee for a car that is more than three years old.
He now does not expect to take delivery of the new car until 2023.
Jane, from south Wales, told DNS that she and her husband ordered their Ford S-MAX in April but have been told the company has not even started building their car yet, and that they will probably need to wait until November.
Customers looking to lease a scooter or powerchair through the scheme have also faced problems.
Julie, from Yorkshire, said she was finding it difficult to find a powered wheelchair or scooter that she can try out through a home demonstration.
She said: “There are so many products not available to have as a home demonstration.
“I am being told to look on the Motability website and pick one without seeing it in a home demonstration.
“I am not willing to do this because I need to see the product, sit on the product, and have a go at the product.
“If I cannot get home demonstrations, I will be forced to come off the scheme as I cannot risk leasing something I have not viewed and tried.
“I am being told the issue lies with production and them only being made when someone orders.”
Other Motability customers have commented on social media, in response to last week’s news story.
One said on Twitter: “11 months and counting still no build date from Ford.”
A customer said on Facebook: “I’ve been waiting since March. I was told June, then July then August now sometime in September. I’ve been told it has been built now waiting shipping.”
And another customer said on Facebook: “Been waiting over 11 months for a wheelchair vehicle.
“Rural, no shops, no buses, having to borrow my son’s tiny hatchback! Still no build date… Citroen Spacetourer.”
A Motability Operations spokesperson said: “We understand our customers’ frustrations with this global motoring industry situation and share their concern about the delays in receiving their new vehicles.
“We also recognise the rising costs in the automotive industry, and we know that some Motability scheme customers are impacted by this when they are looking for a new car on the scheme.
“To help our customers with the affordability of their new vehicle, we introduced the ‘New Vehicle Payment’ in February this year, a one-off payment of £250 when they take delivery of their car.”
She added: “The global car market is still facing a number of challenges, which are leading to supply issues, delivery delays and a shortage of many new makes and models.
“Like the rest of the automotive industry, Motability scheme customers are still being impacted by delays in receiving their vehicles.
“We are working hard to keep all Motability scheme customers up to date with the latest information at every stage of their lease regarding the global supply constraints.
“Our main priority remains keeping our customers mobile, and we are auto extending leases on existing vehicles wherever we need to.
“If a customer is impacted by delays or changes in the specification of their vehicle, we are working with our manufacturer and dealer partners, to ensure we can offer customers a viable alternative.”
She said Motability Operations had shared “multiple communications” with its customers, including email updates, holding question and answer sessions on social media, providing the latest information about the global car supply issues on its website, and through its customer services team.
It is also advising customers to speak to their Motability dealer for the most up-to-date information about delivery dates.
She said customers should start looking for their new car “as soon as they can”, and “to speak to a few different dealers before placing an order” as “a comparable car from a different manufacturer could be available sooner”.
Existing customers can place their next order three months before the end of their lease, which may speed up the delivery times for their chosen vehicle, she said.
She added: “If a customer is unable to find anything suitable for their needs before the end of their current lease, we will automatically extend their existing lease for six months to allow more time to do this.”
*The charity Motability, which oversees the work of Motability Operations, is a subscriber to Disability News Service
11 August 2022
DWP dismisses regulator’s call to publish universal credit ‘fitness for work’ stats
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has dismissed a call from the UK statistics regulator to provide figures that would show how many universal credit claimants are being found “fit for work” through the work capability assessment (WCA) process.
Despite ministers launching universal credit in 2013, DWP has yet to provide any statistics to show how many disabled claimants have been put through the WCA, how long they have had to wait for a WCA, what level of benefit they received following their assessment, and how many of them were being found fit for work.
Even though the WCA system has been closely linked to countless deaths of disabled people over the last decade, DWP produces only statistics relating to employment and support allowance (ESA) and the WCA.
Most non-working disabled people are now receiving universal credit rather than ESA, which is being phased out.
When Chloe Smith, the minister for disabled people, was questioned about the statistics last month, she told MPs on the Commons work and pensions committee that ministers had no intention of producing them.
She told the committee that it was too expensive and too much effort to produce the figures, even though she will be aware that the assessment system has been linked to hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths over the last decade.
The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has been in discussions with DWP since Disability News Service (DNS) wrote to the regulator in March to question the department’s continuing failure to produce the figures for universal credit claimants.
OSR wrote to DWP’s chief statistician in April, questioning the “gap in the information” on WCAs.
Mary Gregory, OSR’s deputy director for regulation, said in her letter to DWP that there had been a “continued and unfulfilled need for WCA statistics since the rollout of Universal Credit”.
She said in the letter that DWP had pointed out as part of a consultation five years ago that it hoped to investigate providing such figures, but she said that “no further information on these areas for future exploration has been published”.
Now DWP’s chief statistician Steve Ellerd-Elliott has finally responded to Gregory’s letter.
In his letter, he describes the process DWP goes through when it produces a new set of statistics.
He also repeats comments made by work and pensions secretary Therese Coffey last month, in which she told the work and pensions committee that there were “currently no plans to develop official statistics on UC claimants undergoing a WCA”.
Coffey told MPs: “While we will keep this position under review, I anticipate there will be fewer resources available, and I am not committing to developing new statistics at this time.”
Ellerd-Elliott told OSR in the letter: “Once there is confirmation on the resources available to the Department there will need to be an assessment on our development priorities within the Statistical Work Programme which will include the proposal for statistics on work capability assessment outcomes for Universal Credit claimants.”
An OSR spokesperson told DNS yesterday (Wednesday) that the letter was “with the relevant OSR team who are considering the points raised in it and our response”.
11 August 2022
Government advisers raise serious concerns over ‘retrograde’ HS2 access issue
The government’s own advisers on accessible transport have raised serious concerns about plans to install inaccessible vertical bike racks in the carriages that will be used on the HS2 high speed railway.
The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) has told the government that storing bikes on vertical racks in HS2 train carriages would be “a retrograde step in terms of accessibility”.
The use of the racks is apparently being given “serious consideration”, even though they would increase the need for assistance for disabled and other passengers who want to bring bikes on board.
DPTAC’s chair, Keith Richards, who will shortly be leaving his post, expressed his “deep disappointment” in the letter (PDF) that HS2 and the Department for Transport (DfT) had failed to seek the committee’s advice.
And he suggested that DfT and HS2 could be breaching the Equality Act with their actions.
He said: “DPTAC’s view is that the DfT and HS2 must seize every opportunity to advance equality of opportunity by enabling disabled passengers to make door-to-door journeys.
“A key element of that is to ensure that those passengers who wish to use bikes for part of their journey are not presented with hurdles or challenges on any part of that door-to-door journey where such hurdles can and should be avoided.”
The letter was obtained by The Association of British Commuters (ABC) through a freedom of information request.
DPTAC said in the letter that many bikes “are simply not narrow enough or light enough to be easily hung on racks”, particularly in “a very constrained space”, while an increasing number of passengers “simply do not possess the height, upper body strength, dexterity, balance etc to enable them to use this type of storage”.
Richards also pointed out that many people were using bikes that were adapted for their needs, such as those with wider wheels or e-cycles, which are likely to be bigger and heavier and “unlikely to fit the hanging mechanisms”.
And he said that “introducing restrictions on the ability for disabled and older passengers to make rail journeys fails to recognise the potential to significantly increase revenue from this large and growing proportion of the UK population”.
He added: “Disabled people already face a number of significant challenges when considering rail as a mode of transport they might use.
“To provide vertical cycle hanging would be a retrograde step and would present a significant deterrent for many disabled (and non-disabled) cyclists.”
Richards called on DfT to consult DPTAC, and carry out “a transparent, robust process of inclusive design” and a full equality impact assessment, before it made any decisions on the design of the bike storage space on HS2 trains.
Only three months ago, Chloe Smith, the minister for disabled people, visited an inclusive cycling session run by the user-led charity Wheels for Wellbeing, which campaigns for equal access to cycling for disabled people, and spoke of how the government was “committed to levelling up the country and building a society where there is equal opportunity to thrive”.
Dr Kay Inckle, campaigns and policy manager for Wheels for Wellbeing, said: “Bike storage which requires people to lift and hang a bicycle is inaccessible for disabled cyclists who ride bicycles and non-standard cycles alike and we do not support their use.
“These hangers are also unusable by a range of cyclists who use larger and heavier cycles including family cycles and e-bikes, potentially also discriminating against parents/carers and older people.
“Accessible onboard cycle storage is all the more important for disabled cyclists because they cannot make use of public cycle share and hire schemes because they use non-standard cycles or bicycles with adaptations.
“Our recent survey of disabled cyclists found that cycle parking and storage and access to public transport were two of the most significant barriers to disabled people cycling.
“Trains need to be designed with much more flexi-space to allow multiple disabled people (whatever mobility aid they use), cyclists (disabled and not), parents and carers with prams and buggies and people with luggage to travel comfortably and safely at the same time.
“In order to increase train travel, the breadth and diversity of the public needs to be fully accommodated within the design rather than offering minimum poorly designed spaces that exclude and discriminate against many.”
DfT said it was considering a range of options for bike storage, including vertical and horizontal bike racks and a combination of the two, and expects to make a decision later this year.
A DfT spokesperson said: “No decisions have been taken on bike storage on HS2 trains.
“We are committed to making rail accessible for all and will continue to work with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee on the carriage designs.”
11 August 2022
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
Councils across England have written to health and social care secretary Steve Barclay to warn that social care reforms could push some local authorities “over the financial edge” and force others to cut back on “vital council services”. The Local Government Association calls in the letter for key reforms – such as an £86,000 cap on the costs of care and a new means-tested system – to be delayed by six months to urgently ease pressure on councils. It comes alongside a warning that this winter could be the most challenging for social care in recent times, and new data revealing that the number waiting for services has surged to over half a million: https://www.itv.com/news/2022-08-05/councils-warn-government-of-care-crisis-and-call-for-reforms-to-be-delayed
Deaths, staff shortages and a culture of life-threatening self-harm are exposing deep fears about the quality of mental health care in hospitals for children and young people. Since 2019, at least 20 patients aged 18 or under have died in NHS or privately-run units, the BBC has found. A further 26 have died within a year of leaving units, amid claims of a lack of ongoing community support:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62294650
11 August 2022
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
