Claire Morgan 17/09/2025 Member StoriesNews

It’s been a busy summer!  I realised this week that I’ve been co-Chair of the Learning Disability Ministerial Advisory Group (LDMAG) with two others for a year now.  I also co chair the Homes not Hospital sub group with Joe Powell (AWPF Chief Executive). 

LDMAG meets every 3 months in person, Homes not Hospitals has been meeting monthly but we’ve now produced our recommendations so the work has eased off for a while.

I am co-Chair of AWPF’s Board of Trustees too and they meet quarterly.  This means chairing meetings, preparing the agendas and supervision of the Chief Executive. 

Because of where I live, I need to travel down the night before for most face-to-face meetings. 

My twin sister and I are planning our joint 40^th birthday party for later in the year.  We’ve invited lots of people.

I have now migrated over to Universal Credit from ESA and thankfully it went relatively smoothly. I just needed a few phone calls with the Job Centre.  I did worry a few weeks ago though when I had a letter to say I’d been overpaid at work – I hadn’t been – it was just that the minimum wage had increased and I’d had holiday pay, so thankfully they didn’t need to make any deductions from my benefits.

I gave the flat a good clean before I left for Watford for Umbrella Fest.  I had such a good time at the event, run by Electric Umbrella.  There were three different groups and a chance for everyone to get up on the stage and sing and dance.  It was a long journey to get there – it took 10 hours in the end.  I went by coach because I don’t like the Underground.  Another AWPF member helped me plan the journey as he does it regularly and he could send me pictures of the important bus stops etc.  I was a bit worried about the Heathrow bit, but in the end it all went smoothly. I decided to make a weekend of it and on the Sunday after the event I went around the shopping centre and out for lunch and headed back to west Wales on the Monday.