CARERS and those living with disabilities in Southampton have voiced their fears about life in the city following cuts to services.

Members of the disabled community went to a forum at a city centre church where they spoke about how they are struggling to cope with life under the austerity cuts and their uncertainty of what lies ahead.

Outgoing Southampton Itchen MP, John Denham, chaired the two two-hour meetings where he heard from those suffering from disability, their carers and their families to talk about cuts to social welfare.

Topics on a range of issues were brought up from disabled bus passes to respite centres for carers, which saw many people express their emotion at recent changes.

One woman, who didn’t want to be named, but was a carer for her disabled son, was in tears as she told the Labour MP how she felt about caring for her loved one.

She said: “We as carers cope because we have to. Services for respite are in the mix. It is not acceptable.

“I don’t feel valued at all. I feel lost, I feel helpless and powerless but I have to do the job, I have to get on with it with no training.

William Keates, chairman of blind support charity Hampshire Advocacy, said disabled people across Southampton are “disenfranchised”.

He spoke about how many disabled people are unable to know where to go to get basic services which are supplied by both by the NHS and Social Services.

Mr Keates said: “People need to know where they are and where they need to go.

“People know that there are going to be cuts but the uncertainty and the inability to know what is going to happen is causing a lot of misery.

“If social services and health are not arranged together, we are going to have a dog’s breakfast.”

Mr Denham said it was a “very moving four hours”.

He said: “Virtually everybody who came spoke. What was really quite overwhelming was just how resilient, patient and determined people are, often facing very huge problems and making huge sacrifices, particularly looking after their loved ones.

“There were a number of things that came across very strongly. One of those was that people are frustrated that they were often powerless about decisions which were being made where they were not given a voice.”