Please sign and share this petition (text of the petition is copied below): https://www.change.org/p/newham-council-halt-the-eviction-of-the-clarke-family
We call on Newham Council to halt the eviction of the Clarke family with immediate effect. Claudine, a single mum, cares for her 3 children: Deno, aged 18; Shanice, aged 16, and Malachi, aged 5. The family have special medical and learning needs and are reliant on their family who live locally, and social and community support. Deno, who is severely autistic, has settled happily at Newham Sixth Form College where he receives tremendous support from a dedicated staff team; he has established close friendships with his classmates. Shanice also studies at a local college.
Newham are insisting the family uproot to Birmingham where they have no network of friends, family or connection. This would have huge consequences on the health and well-being of the Clarke family and is a dereliction of responsibility on the part of Newham Council. The Council’s obligations under law appear to have been disregarded.
We call on Newham Council to: 1) Rescind the eviction order against the Clarke family with immediate effect; 2) Provide secure accommodation for the family in the Borough of Newham (a secure tenancy and rent could easily be provided on the Carpenters’ estate where there are a number of empty, refurbished properties suitable for the Clarke family).
Petition
I am signing this petition because the Clarke’s are a family in need of support, but their rights are being undermined by the Coalition Government’s benefit cap and Newham’s decision to relocate the family out of London.
I disagree in principle with the Tory programme to redefine the welfare state. This includes policies like the benefits cap which have been introduced with the deliberate intention of driving lower income families out of London, regardless of their circumstances, their need for local support, or their longstanding ties with an area.
I call on the Council, as well as Sir Robin Wales and John Biggs AM, to find ways to support the continued social and ethnic mix and historical legacy of the Borough, to respect the rights of all residents to a home within their local community, and to resist the pernicious effects that this indirectly discriminatory policy is having on London and beyond.
The Coalition Government introduced deliberately weak specific duties under the PSED to ensure they could not effectively be held to account in the courts for their refusal to fulfil the intention of the general equality duty (and they are trying to remove our recourse to judicial review too, not just the means to pay for access to justice through legal aid). Don’t forget that they also refused to introduce a duty under the Equality Act for strategic decision makers to consider impacts on different socioeconomic groups.
The fundamental changes to the benefits system are causing regression in equality and the realisation of human rights, without adequate or proportionate mitigating measures. If this is ‘due regard to the need to advance equality of opportunity’ then the PSED is not working as it was intended by Parliament.
The High Court has already confirmed that Article 8 rights to a family life are engaged by the benefit cap. The judge concluded that the policy fell short of a breach of Article 8, on the facts of the case. There are other cases and other facts and the impact of the cap in meaning Councils have to send households away from their family network, is an unjustifiable interference in those rights.
The right to adequate housing and an adequate standard of living, which the UK is legally committed to under the Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, includes guarantees of security of tenure, affordability, accessibility, location and cultural adequacy; and should be ensured to all persons irrespective of income or access to economic resources.
The UK State, having undertaken along with other UN members to work towards a society where essential rights are guaranteed to all persons, is obliged to take steps, to the maximum of their available resources, towards progressive realisation of these rights. This means the Coalition Government is required under international law to take deliberate, concrete and targeted progressive steps even if resources are constrained, and is prohibited from introducing retrogressive measures without full justification and strict consideration of a series of safeguards, especially for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised.
When the UK’s compliance with ICESCR is scrutinised by the UN, stories like that of the Clarke family will illustrate how the Coalition Government reneged on the UK’s commitments.
Newham Council must act to help hold back the tide washing away the human rights of the social groups this Government has selected as scapegoats and collateral damage. When the reckoning is made of the Tories’ ideological project to advance the interests of the richest in society and help them colonise every corner of London, while balancing the books on the backs of the poor, Newham should make sure it is on the right side of history.
https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/News/Eviction-in-Newham-of-a-family-of-five.aspx
It seems they’re being evicted from private accommodation
It is difficult enough to care for children as a lone parent, but so much harder when they have particular medical needs. As the parent of an autistic child, I know how hard it is for them to cope with any type of change in any one aspect of their lives, let alone having to cope with everything changing at once, which could have a huge, negative impact upon his mental health. It is particularly difficult to find suitable educational provision and also to establish a network of professionals who can work together and understand the needs of someone on the autistic spectrum. It is particularly cruel because of these issues, to seek to uproot this family. Have they been given sufficient reasonable preference in terms of properties, because of disability needs?It sounds as though the autistic child might benefit from a SEND plan involving all agencies involved in medical, social and educational care and that the agencies should be liaising withand lobbying the housing dept over these issues.Housing depts should take account of social issues as well as medical ones and the latter go beyong people not being able to get up stairs etc. Autistic people are affected profoundly by their surroundings . I hope that the National Autistic Society has been contacted for help.