Contents
DWP admits ‘shocking’ and ‘negligent’ five-year failure to appoint a chief medical adviser 1
Disability justice project hopes to secure support across the country 6
‘Risk of serious harm’ if council goes ahead with telecare charges, say disabled campaigners 12
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week 16
DWP admits ‘shocking’ and ‘negligent’ five-year failure to appoint a chief medical adviser
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted that it failed to appoint a chief medical adviser for more than five years, at a time when its policy decisions were causing countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants.
The department failed even to appoint a medical professional to fill the post in an interim capacity between July 2017 and November 2022.
The failure to fill the post – described as “criminally negligent” and “absolutely shocking” by disabled activists this week – has only emerged in response to a freedom of information request from Disability News Service (DNS).
Following the departure of Dr Bill Gunnyeon – who “retired” from the post in 2014, and then waited just six months before joining the US outsourcing giant Maximus to work on both its work capability assessment (WCA) and Fit for Work contracts – DWP appointed Dr Pui Ling Li.
She was in post until July 2017.
But DWP admitted this week that from July 2017 to November 2022 “there was no Chief Medical Adviser in DWP”.
A job listing for the position* from the summer of 2021 said the successful candidate would “ensure expert clinical advice informs policy, legislation and delivery decisions on social security and employment benefits and services – including the Personal Independence Payment [PIP] and Employment and Support Allowance”.
During the five-year period without a chief medical adviser, a series of high-profile deaths were closely linked to DWP’s actions and failures, including those of Errol Graham, Roy Curtis, James Oliver, Philippa Day, Christian Wilcox, Philip Pakree, Ker Featherstone, and Kevin Gale, who took his own life on 4 March 2022 after he became overwhelmed by the universal credit application process.
It was also a period when DWP’s own figures showed the number of its secret internal process reviews into deaths of benefit claimants more than doubled over three years; and the Commons work and pensions committee found the benefits assessment system to be undermined by a “pervasive culture of mistrust”.
During these five years, DWP also secretly abandoned work on a £106 million plan that was supposed to prevent suicides and other deaths of benefit claimants, learn from its mistakes, and deliver reform “for the most vulnerable in society”.
In November 2022, the department finally made an interim appointment, with Dr Emily Pikett taking up the role until last September, when DWP appointed the current chief medical adviser, Dr Gail Allsopp, who does not provide her surname on her LinkedIn profile – describing herself as Gail A – and does not appear to be mentioned anywhere on the DWP website.
A spokesperson for the grassroots, user-led mental health group Recovery in the Bin, said: “This is another criminally negligent act by the DWP, while not being unusual across the shambolic government of the last 15 years.
“It simply emphasises that they truly did not think they had a duty of care and were completely careless as to what harm they did.
“Actions speak louder than words and this says loudly they do not consider us as human beings deserving of rights and respect.
“It also shows the fake medical show trials the WCA and PIP assessments really are.”
Paula Peters, a member of the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts, said DWP’s failure to ensure it had a chief medical adviser was “absolutely shocking and appalling” and “downright negligent”.
She said: “Yet again this shows the callous disregard the department has for claimants’ lives and safety and the total lack of empathy the department has towards families when they know that disabled people are dying as a result of their cruel and callous policies.
“They must be held to account for this and hard-hitting questions must be put to ministers to explain why there was no chief medical officer in post at the DWP for five years.”
DWP had not been able to comment by 1pm today (Thursday) on the failure to appoint a chief medical adviser for five years, despite a request being emailed to its press office by DNS on Tuesday morning.
DNS editor John Pring had submitted the freedom of information request to check on a claim made during an interview with DWP’s former chief medical adviser, Professor Sir Mansel Aylward.
During the interview in March 2023 for Pring’s book, The Department*, Professor Aylward promised to contact the current holder of the role with questions about the WCA.
Professor Aylward, who died on 29 May this year after a long illness, promised in the interview that he would investigate why the assessment – which was based on the “all work test” he developed in the early 1990s – had been linked to hundreds of suicides between 2010 and 2013.
He told Pring last year: “I have to do some background reading, obviously, but I don’t want something that I was associated with in developing being a cause of so much stress that people commit suicide.”
He promised to contact DWP’s current chief medical adviser to ask them about the training given to those who now carry out WCAs, how their work is monitored, and “why there are so many deaths”.
He said: “Because he must know, mustn’t he? Well, we want to look into it so you can, you know, put that element into your book as well.”
Professional Aylward had long been a controversial figure among disabled activists for his role in developing the all work test, and his links to the biopsychosocial model of health – which has played a hugely influential role in the department’s assessment systems – and the US disability insurance giant Unum.
Soon after last year’s interview, he became seriously ill with pancreatic cancer.
When Pring spoke to his wife in July 2023, she said he probably had just months or even weeks to live but still wanted to “set the record straight”.
She asked Pring to email some follow-up questions, but Professor Aylward never responded to them.
As well as asking for details of all DWP’s chief medical advisers since Gunnyeon’s retirement, Pring asked DWP in the freedom of information request whether Professor Aylward had written to the current chief medical adviser, as he had promised to do.
In response to the request, DWP said: “Following a search of our paper and electronic records, we have established that the information you requested is not held by this Department and advise that Professor Sir Mansel Aylward died in May 2024.”
*Although this post is described as “head medical practitioner”, it is believed to be the same role as chief medical adviser
**The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by John Pring, is published by Pluto Press
12 September 2024
Hospitals would not initially be protected from electricity cuts in a ‘national power outage’, government admits
Hospitals and other “priority customers” would not be protected from power cuts in the first days of an unplanned “national power outage”, according to new information from a secret government report on the possible impact on disabled people.
The information – previously redacted by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) – is part of an internal “scoping paper”*, produced in July 2023, which examined the possible impact of such national power emergencies on disabled people who rely on medical equipment at home.
The new information still does not provide a full picture of how the government would protect this group, and it appears that they would be expected to have made their own plans for such an emergency.
DHSC only released the redacted information after being told to do so by the information commissioner, following a complaint by Disability News Service (DNS).
The commissioner concluded in a decision notice that the department’s arguments for preventing the release of the redacted information were outweighed by the public interest in disclosing it to DNS.
The new information released by DHSC suggests that, in a “reasonable worst-case scenario” and in the first 48 to 72 hours of a national power outage, “no sites would be protected from power outages”, including hospitals.
Only after an electricity supply emergency code (ESEC) was implemented, which could take three days, would “priority customers”, including “certain hospitals”, be protected from “rolling outages”, although there would still be “no domestic exceptions”.
The scoping paper also reveals how – as well as disabled people reliant on medical equipment being subject to these rolling power cuts, probably in three-hour blocks – the national power outage would have numerous “secondary impacts” on “vulnerable people”, including on water, food, communications, transport, fuel and healthcare settings.
It warns of “severe impacts to the majority of water and sewage treatment sites… and therefore regions served by the sites impacted will not have a guaranteed continuous clean water supply”, while local disruption to food supply could affect the public’s ability to “maintain adequate food supplies”.
The public would not be able to call the 999 emergency service from most landline phones, while mobiles could only be used to call 999 if they had been adequately charged.
The paper also warns of “the potential sudden need for emergency admissions to hospitals and the burden this would put on an already stretched service, both in terms of bed capacity, staffing and the knock-on effect to other services”.
It suggests there are between 70,000 and 250,000 people who depend on electricity supply for medical equipment at home, but these numbers appear to rely on power industry figures and are likely to be an under-estimate.
DHSC stressed this week that the redacted information was taken from “worst-case scenario planning assumptions” that were “not a forecast or prediction but a standard tool to support prudent resilience and contingency planning for a wide range of scenarios, even those unlikely to occur”.
It added: “The UK has a secure and diverse energy system which has demonstrated its reliability over the past two years by delivering gas and electricity supplies when needed amidst a period characterised by high energy prices.
“The outlook for the coming winter is positive.”
The scoping paper was drawn up to consider what advice was available for disabled people who rely on mains-powered medical devices at home and whether there was a need for DHSC to issue its own guidance.
But DHSC decided not to draw up any guidance and to leave it to individual disabled people and their “care teams” to draw up plans for “how they can prepare for and respond to loss of power to their home”.
Information previously released by DHSC and reported by DNS showed the paper suggesting that such disabled people should “take individual responsibility for their own preparedness”.
That conclusion was reached even though the document makes clear that some disabled people could be “at very high risk of catastrophic deterioration” if the power cut was unexpected or continued for longer than their equipment’s batteries lasted.
The paper also admitted that there were significant flaws with the system of local priority services registers (PSRs), which are supposed to ensure energy companies provide “enhanced support to their more vulnerable customers”.
Those who sign up can be warned in some circumstances when their power is about to be cut off and can be signposted to support, but they are not exempt from blackouts, and if they need a continuous supply of electricity for medical reasons they are told to “seek advice from their local health service provider”.
The DHSC paper also warned that there were “barriers” that prevented many of those eligible from signing up to a PSR, while there was “an issue” with knowing how many devices supporting those with “the more critical conditions” were being used in people’s homes.
The scoping paper also admitted that “in a national power outage scenario it would not be possible to notify PSR households pre-emptively” that they were about to lose electricity.
And it stated that in a “reasonable worst-case scenario” in at least some types of “national power outage”, services such as providing emergency power to those on the PSR who rely on “at home medical equipment” would “not be available due to the scale and complexity of the outage”.
The attempt to secure the missing information from the scoping paper was the latest effort by DNS over the last two years – in the face of resistance from the last Conservative government – to find out what plans ministers had put in place to protect people who rely on equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators and dialysis machines in the event of a major blackout.
DHSC declined to say this week if it believed the risks facing disabled people who use medical equipment at home had changed since the scoping study was produced last year, or if the new government was comfortable with the concerns raised about the risks they would face in the first two to three days of a national power outage.
It also declined to say if the new government believed that preparations for this group of disabled people were now adequate, in the event of a national power emergency this winter.
But a DHSC spokesperson said in a statement: “The UK has a secure and diverse energy system, and we remain confident that the gas and electricity system operators have the tools they need to effectively balance supply and demand in a wide range of scenarios, as they have done in previous years.
“We prepare for a wide range of risks, even those unlikely to occur, as set out in the National Risk Register.
“We launched the Prepare campaign in May to help the public take simple and effective steps to be more prepared for risks, which includes information for what to do in a power cut and advice for users of medical devices.”
The Prepare website includes advice for disabled people and information on what to do in a power outage.
But the website includes no new information for disabled people who need to use medical equipment at home, relying instead on DHSC’s previous position that they should “make a plan” in advance with their “care provider, clinical care team and/or equipment supplier”.
*Rolling Power Outages: Medical Equipment and Vulnerable People
12 September 2024
Disability justice project hopes to secure support across the country
A disabled people’s organisation is hoping its new disability justice project will draw support from across the country and create change in both government policy and public attitudes, as well as addressing the sense of “inevitability” around disability poverty.
One of Inclusion Barnet’s early targets will be to persuade the new Labour government to scrap proposed changes to personal independence payment that were included in a consultation document by the Conservative government shortly before July’s general election.
Inclusion Barnet says 14 years of austerity have been “disastrous” for disabled people, while the “skiver versus striver” rhetoric promoted by successive governments has been used to justify cuts to disability support and funding.
It hopes its Campaign for Disability Justice – launched today (Thursday) – will convince disabled people and their allies to sign up as supporters on its new website.
Caroline Collier, Inclusion Barnet’s chief executive, told Disability News Service: “It always astounds me that we are so accepting as a society of disability poverty and bad outcomes for disabled people.”
She pointed to last year’s report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that suggested there were more than two million disabled people who experienced destitution in 2022.
She said: “There is a really disproportionate number of disabled people living in deep poverty, and there’s just not enough awareness of the issues.
“It should make the headlines.”
She also highlighted the countless deaths of disabled people linked to the actions of the Department for Work and Pensions.
She said: “People are literally dying and still nothing is done.
“It’s almost like people think that there’s an inevitability: that if you’re disabled, it’s sad, but suffering is inevitable.
“It doesn’t have to be that way at all.”
Collier hopes the new campaign – initially funded from Inclusion Barnet’s reserves – will help change public attitudes towards disabled people, end disablist rhetoric, and help to move towards a society where all disabled people enjoy a decent standard of living.
She also hopes it will help to build a society that “respects and values us”, and also support the development of disabled people’s organisations.
The campaign has already secured backing from disabled people’s organisations, allies and networks such as Inclusion London, Inclusion Scotland, National Survivor User Network, Disability Rights UK and Disability Law Service, as well as Learning Disability England, Turn2us, AdviceUK, Association of Mental Health Providers, Mencap, The Trussell Trust, Scope, and the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action.
One of Collier’s targets is to find a way with the campaign to move beyond disabled people and allies who are already “converted” to the need for disability justice and “reach the people who might be sympathetic if you talk to them in the right way”.
She added: “Ultimately, the dream is to break the link between disability and poverty. Obviously, that’s a huge goal, but that link should not exist.
“I’d encourage all Disability News Service readers to join the campaign, follow us at @CampaignFDJ, spread the word and help make the case for change.”
12 September 2024
London Assembly gives unanimous backing to DPO’s call for a disability equality champion for the capital
Members of the London Assembly have unanimously backed a call for the mayor to take a “strategic” approach to improving the lives of disabled Londoners and appoint a new champion for disability equality across the capital.
They voted for a motion that was drawn up by the disabled people’s organisation (DPO) Inclusion London and Liberal Democrat assembly member Hina Bokhari and which received cross-party support.
The motion (PDF) called for the mayor, Sadiq Khan, to ensure that disabled people are involved in co-producing disability-related policy, and to appoint a disability equality champion who would lead the development of a new London Disability Action Plan and on making “London a better place to live for Disabled Londoners”.
Such a plan could cover energy policy, climate change, technology, health, housing, transport, the environment, police and emergency planning.
The motion also confirmed the London Assembly’s support for the social model of disability, which recognises that disability is created by the way society is organised.
Inclusion London welcomed the unanimous support for the motion from London Assembly members, and said disabled Londoners were “tired of empty commitments” and urgently need “real meaningful action”.
It said the mayor needed to appoint a disabled person to coordinate and develop policies that address the barriers faced by the 1.2 million disabled Londoners.
Bokhari had told Thursday’s assembly session: “At a transport committee meeting recently, we heard from charities, advisers and academics that disabled people are often only consulted by decision-makers once policies have already been developed, resulting in policies that discriminate and perpetuate structural inequalities.
“Our proposal would eliminate that problem, develop a model of co-creation of policy with disabled Londoners and their organisations, and the GLA* can and should be trailblazers with policy-making in this way.”
Assembly members also agreed an amendment to the motion, which called on the mayor to order an independent review of the use of floating bus stops in the capital.
Disabled campaigners have warned that floating bus stops (otherwise known as bus stop bypasses) – where a cycle lane is placed between the bus stop and the pavement – put blind and partially-sighted people, and others, at risk of colliding with cyclists when they exit a bus.
Adam Gabsi, Inclusion London’s chair, said disabled people were “tired of empty commitments” and “urgently need a real meaningful action”.
He said disabled people had been one of the groups that were hardest hit by austerity, the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis, and were disproportionately living in poverty, while public transport, technology, housing, street space, cultural and sports venues and activities “remain inaccessible for many of us”.
He said: “As a disabled Londoner I live those barriers every day, and so do 1.2 million other disabled Londoners.”
Gabsi said: “Meaningful co-production is an essential part of improving the lives of disabled people in London.
“Having a disability equality champion who would be responsible for overseeing the development of the Disability Action Plan would be extremely beneficial in achieving the much-needed necessary improvements.
“We welcome this motion and are grateful to Hina Bokhari for working with us and championing it and to all assembly members for supporting it.
“Now the ball is in the mayor’s corner and we urge him to engage with us, listen to us and to take more strategic and proactive steps to improving our lives.”
A spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement: “The mayor is committed to creating a more equal, accessible and inclusive city, and works closely with Deaf and disabled people’s organisations to ensure that City Hall is considering their needs across all aspects of its work.
“This includes launching the Equity in Motion plan to ensure London’s transport network is welcoming, inclusive and accessible to all Londoners, as well as internal guidance and support for GLA teams to ensure inclusivity.”
He said the mayor had signed the British Sign Language Charter, while his deputy mayor for communities and social justice chaired both a Deaf and disabled people’s organisations forum, and an equality, diversity and inclusion advisory group.
He added: “The mayor will continue to do all he can to support disabled Londoners, and will respond to the assembly’s motion in due course.”
On floating bus stops, another spokesperson for the mayor said they were “in line with government guidance and are a nationally recognised approach for avoiding the dangers of cyclists going around buses into oncoming traffic”.
She said the mayor had asked Transport for London to review their safety, and its report found “very few collisions have occurred at bus stop bypasses and that they have not led to a reduction in bus stop use by older or disabled customers.
“However, we recognise the concerns that some people have when using this infrastructure and we are actively working with disabled people and accessibility groups to look at improvements to design and the behaviour of road users to ensure that this infrastructure is as safe as possible for everyone.”
*Greater London Authority, which is led by the mayor
12 September 2024
Disabled campaigners call on government to take seven key steps in response to final Grenfell report
Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) have called on the government to take seven key steps in response to the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, which they believe would lead to a “sea change” in housing law and policy for disabled residents.
They spoke out after the inquiry told the government last week to take urgent action to prioritise the safety of disabled people and other “vulnerable” residents who live in high-rise residential buildings.
This week’s call came from four DPOs – Inclusion London, Disability Rights UK, Harrow Association of Disabled People and Spinal Injuries Association – and the campaigning disabled people’s leaseholder group Claddag.
The Grenfell Tower fire, which began in the early hours of 14 June 2017, led to the deaths of 72 people, and analysis of the final report suggests about 20 of them were disabled.
The inquiry’s chair, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, has criticised the “persistent failure to give sufficient importance to the demands of fire safety, particularly the safety of vulnerable people”.
The five organisations said this week that disablism and racism were both “strong contributors” to the events that led to the fire, “including the many ways in which the views and complaints of residents were devalued, disregarded and ignored”.
They want the government to implement the inquiry’s recommendation – made nearly five years ago – to impose a duty on owners or managers of high-rise residential buildings to prepare a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) for all residents who might find it difficult to “self-evacuate”.
They welcomed the new government’s apparent commitment to meet this recommendation, which they contrasted with previous Conservative governments that “unforgivably and repeatedly” avoided implementing it.
They also called on the new government to “act immediately” on the report’s recommendation that it should “urgently” review the definition of a “higher-risk building” so that it depends partly on whether there are disabled residents who might find it difficult to evacuate in an emergency, rather than just depending on the building’s height.
The five organisations want the government to extend the PEEPs requirement to all residential buildings covered by the fire safety order, the main piece of legislation governing fire safety in buildings in England and Wales.
And they say the government should implement recommendations in the inquiry report that highlight the importance of taking account of the risks to disabled people, when drawing up a fire safety strategy.
This week’s statement also makes it clear that DPOs should be involved “from the outset” in developing any proposals to improve the safety of disabled residents.
Last week’s inquiry report found that concerns that new fire safety guidance in 2011 did not include advice on evacuating disabled people from high-rise buildings were “simply brushed aside” because the coalition government at the time “considered it too difficult to find a solution to the problem”.
The five organisations say the rights and risks to life of disabled people were dismissed by the government and viewed as “too difficult”, reflecting a “culture of indifference in the years leading up to the fire” which was enabled by “the consistent failure” to involve DPOs, disabled people and specialists when developing proposals.
They called on the new government to “stand against the neglect, indifference, and discrimination of the past” by collaborating with disabled people.
Elspeth Grant, a fire safety and disability specialist, from consultancy Triple A Solutions, who raised concerns about the guidance in 2011, has backed this week’s statement.
The statement also highlights the need for the government to take action on the accessible housing crisis, including the introduction of laws to ensure all new housing is built to the M4(2) standard of accessibility, with 10 per cent built to the wheelchair-accessible M4(3) standard*.
And they say there should be regular, fully accessible consultation with all disabled people living in residential blocks on issues affecting the safety and repair of those buildings.
Their final call is for a legal right to “wrap around support” for disabled residents when the buildings they live in are subject to “disruptive and distressing” building improvements, such as the removal of dangerous cladding.
*Homes built to the M4(2) standard have 16 accessible or adaptable features, similar to the Lifetime Homes standard developed in the early 1990s, to make homes more easily adaptable for lifetime use, while M4(3) homes are those that are supposed to be fully wheelchair-accessible
12 September 2024
‘Risk of serious harm’ if council goes ahead with telecare charges, say disabled campaigners
Disabled people will be left at risk of serious harm if a council goes ahead with plans to introduce new charges for one of its “vital” care services, a disabled people’s organisation has warned.
Difference North East has told Hartlepool council that it has failed to assess the “full implication and impact” of the planned charges.
They believe many disabled people will be forced to give up the council’s telecare service, even though it keeps them “safe and independent in their own homes”.
The telecare service provides body-worn devices which can trigger a call for help, and other assistive technology such as fire and gas alarms that activate a warning to a response centre in an emergency.
The service is currently available free to disabled people who qualify for support under the Care Act.
But from next month the council plans to bring in charges of between £5 and £12 a week* – up to £624 a year – for the service, plus a one-off charge of about £50 to install a key safe.
The council admitted in a report last year that it believed “some people currently benefitting from the service at no charge will opt out when the charges are introduced”.
Difference North East (DNE) wants the council to scrap the charges, or at least pause them so it can carry out a proper consultation.
It believes the council has carried out “little to no consultation” with existing telecare-users and other local people about the changes.
In an open letter to the council, DNE says: “We are concerned that the full implication and impact of these new charges has not been assessed properly; that local people will be left at risk if they cannot afford, or refuse to pay, these charges.
“These extra costs mean Disabled people have less money in their pocket than non-disabled people, or they go without.”
The letter adds: “Social care is not a luxury, it is a human right.”
It also calls on the council to learn from the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the only council in England where non-residential care is free.
Claire Andrews, DNE’s development manager, said: “This is not the right time to introduce charges without a full and meaningful consultation and we are worried that the wider impact of this decision has not been assessed properly.
“Local people tell us they cannot afford to pay, they tell us that they plan to unplug the device and go without, leaving themselves at risk of serious harm and that’s not right.
“This runs the risk of creating two-tier care systems; care being offered to those who can afford to pay and denied to those who can’t.
“Disabled people are already facing some of the biggest cuts to their income and this will inevitably put further strain on unpaid carers, local charities and other health and social care services.”
DNE also points to a report from Disability Law Service (DLS), which found that rising home care charges were having a negative effect on the physical, mental and emotional well-being of disabled adults and their family members.
The DLS report also found that “very few” councils were fulfilling their public sector equality duty when imposing charges, for example by failing to assess the costs and benefits of their charging policy; not using discretion in waiving charges; and failing to consult disabled people and disabled people’s organisations.
A Hartlepool Borough Council spokesperson said in a statement: “We welcome the feedback provided by Difference North East and a written response has been provided.
“Unfortunately, it is not possible for the council to continue providing telecare services free of charge due to increasing demands for the service, rising costs of equipment and staffing, and the significant financial pressures all councils are facing.
“The majority of councils in the north-east, and across the country, have already been charging for these services for a number of years.
“We understand that people are concerned about the introduction of charges for telecare services, and in response to the comments we have received from existing service-users we have taken a number of actions to minimise the impact for those affected including introducing a discount for couples, delaying the implementation date and offering support for people to access the benefits they are entitled to.”
*The actual charges are £6 for a basic service or £14.40 for an enhanced service, including VAT, but the council says disabled people are exempt from paying the VAT, so they would pay £5 or £12 per week
12 September 2024
Commons confirms MPs received DWP ‘violence’ book, as Reeves warns of ‘difficult’ decisions on ‘welfare’
The House of Commons has met its promise to distribute hundreds of copies of a book about Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) “bureaucratic violence” to MPs, just as Labour’s chancellor was warning of difficult decisions on “welfare” in the budget.
Disabled activists raised thousands of pounds to buy 650 discounted copies of The Department through a crowdfunder so the book could be delivered to every MP in the new parliament.
They believe it is vital that all MPs – particularly those on the Labour backbenches – are aware of how decades of “slow bureaucratic violence” by the Department of Social Security, and then DWP, eventually led to countless deaths of disabled benefit claimants in the post-2010 austerity years.
One disabled activist said yesterday (Wednesday) that reading the book would help MPs understand “the human cost of poor policy-making” on social security, particularly for disabled people.
The House of Commons confirmed to Disability News Service this week that the vast majority of the books have been delivered to MPs.
The only books that have not yet been delivered are to those MPs who have asked for their mail to be held back until they have a parliamentary office.
There had been concerns among some disabled people who contributed to the crowdfunder about whether the books would reach MPs.
Activists had been assured weeks in advance – both by the Commons Post Office and its security department – that they would be allowed to bring in the copies through the security scanners at the parliamentary building Portcullis House, but managers refused to allow them to bring in the sealed envelopes, each addressed to an individual MP.
In protest, activists – led by Disabled People Against Cuts and Black Triangle Campaign – used the books to block the public entrance to the building for more than an hour on 2 September.
After negotiations with security and police, Commons managers eventually agreed to collect all 650 copies – without charge – and take them to be scanned by their outsourced security contractors, before delivering them to MPs.
The Commons press office has now confirmed that nearly every envelope has been delivered to MPs, while the remaining handful will receive theirs when they are allocated a parliamentary office.
The confirmation came as chancellor Rachel Reeves told the BBC that next month’s budget would involve “difficult decisions” on tax, spending and social security.
She was speaking as Labour won a vote in the Commons on Tuesday over its plans to start means-testing winter fuel payments for older people, although one Labour MP voted against the plans and more than 50 did not vote.
Reeves told the BBC: “I’ve been really clear that the budget on 30 October will require difficult decisions on tax, on spending, and on welfare.”
The new social security and disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms, has said previously that the Labour government is “committed to reforming or replacing the Work Capability Assessment, alongside putting in place a proper plan to support disabled people into work” and has also said the government “will be considering our own approach to social security in due course”.
The project to raise funds for the books and to deliver them to MPs has been led by disabled activists, including Black Triangle Campaign and the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations’ Coalition, and supported by disabled people’s organisations, allies and families of those who have lost their lives, as well as Pluto Press, which has published The Department.
John McArdle, co-founder of Black Triangle Campaign, whose idea it was to launch the crowdfunder, thanked the House of Commons for confirming that nearly all of the books have been delivered.
He said: “We hope that these MPs now read this book, learn its lessons, and work to address the awful failures in government policy that it describes, and which led to these tragic deaths in our social security system.
“They must never happen again, and we hope these MPs will ensure that they do not.
“We also hope the government will wake up and realise that cutting the social security budget is not the way to fix the foundations of our country or our economy.”
He added: “We want to thank everyone who donated to our fundraiser, mostly in £5 and £10 donations.
“It was truly a demonstration of people power, people joining together to speak truth to power and demand our human rights be restored and upheld.”
Mark Baggley, manager of Choices and Rights Disability Coalition in Hull, said: “I think it’s vitally important that MPs read their copy of The Department, particularly when looking at the future of welfare benefits.
“I understand that there were over 16,000 responses to the recent consultation over the previous government’s proposals [on personal independence payment] and these will take some time to wade through.
“But I think before any action is taken, the government need to read the book and consult with disabled people before making any changes.”
Disabled campaigner Ben Scott said: “I am relieved that MPs are being made aware of the critical messages in The Department.
“I read the book in one sitting on the day it was published, staying up until 3.40am the following morning.
“As an autistic individual who faced PIP refusals and sanctions three times between 2016 and 2021, I understand all too well the harm caused by bureaucratic failures.
“I won my cases each time, despite struggling with suicidal thoughts, and this is why I became an autism and disability advocate in 2022 and an ambassador for the National Autistic Society (Wales)… to fight for our right to live.
“With Labour set to propose their own disability benefit reforms, it’s more important than ever that MPs understand the human cost of poor policy-making.
“By reading this book, they could help ensure future reforms prioritise dignity, rights, and well-being for disabled people.
“We cannot afford another system that harms us instead of offering the support we desperately need.”
James Kelly, publicity and social media manager for Pluto Press, said: “We welcome the news that copies of The Department have been successfully delivered to members of parliament.
“Activists have been working around the clock to make sure that their voices are heard.
“We hope that MPs take this opportunity to engage with the material and the reality of human suffering that’s driven by austerity.”
Among the organisations that have supported the campaign are Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Inclusion London, Disability Rights UK, Recovery in the Bin and the radical working-class media organisation The Canary.
The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by DNS editor John Pring, was published by Pluto Press last month
12 September 2024
Other disability-related stories covered by mainstream media this week
The chair of an inquiry into more than 2,000 mental health-related deaths has said “we may never know” the true number of people who died. The Lampard Inquiry has got under way, examining deaths at NHS-run children and adult inpatient units in Essex between 2000 and 2023. Baroness Lampard, who is leading proceedings, said the inquiry was “of the gravest concern and significance”. She warned the number of deaths was expected to be “significantly in excess” of the 2,000 figure previously reported: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c15gjpde7q4o
Britain’s Paralympians have called on prime minister Keir Starmer to ensure disabled children have equal access to school sport. As the British team returned from the Paralympics in Paris – having finished second in the medal table behind China, with 124 medals, including 49 golds – an open letter from ParalympicsGB to the government said only one in four disabled children regularly takes part in school sport. Its Equal Play campaign calls on the government to ensure “every child has the same access to PE at school, rather than leaving them sidelined”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c07e3520nvko
There are no quick fixes to problems faced by families with children with special educational needs and disabilities, the schools minister has said. Catherine McKinnell said the government was determined to reform the special educational needs system. Some children are waiting years to find out if they qualify for support from councils, which are struggling to meet demand. MPs called for urgent action to help families, in a packed-out debate in parliament last Thursday: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wj011wd57o
Hundreds of children with special educational needs (SEN) are completely missing from education in England, analysis suggests. Children with SEN make up 22 per cent of the 2,900 children not enrolled at a school or being suitably educated elsewhere – which is disproportionately high, the report says. Children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said provision for children with SEN was “the number one thing that needs sorting out alongside attendance to make sure our kids can go to school”. The Department for Education said the report showed “far too many children falling through the cracks”: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9qg94d45zxo
A man with learning difficulties who was jailed for life in 1991 for the murder of a shopkeeper in London has had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal. Oliver Campbell spent 11 years in prison for murder and robbery following a fatal shooting at an off-licence in Hackney that killed Baldev Hoondle in July 1990. He was 21 when convicted by an Old Bailey jury, despite evidence that another man had been named as the gunman: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/oliver-campbell-murder-appeal-conviction-overturned-b2610799.html
An app that immediately translates train announcements into British Sign Language has been launched. South Western Railway is trialling Signapse, which uses AI generated images to deliver information to Deaf passengers. The trial is currently running on services between Basingstoke, London, Salisbury and Exeter, with hopes to extend the initiative. Developers hope the app will make train journeys less stressful and plan to introduce the app in all public places: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qej3qe2k3o
A disabled activist was prevented from boarding a Eurostar service to London because she had not booked a ramp – even though her ticket was for a wheelchair space. Sam Jennings, who uses an electric wheelchair, said staff at Gare du Nord station in Paris had “watched me queue to check in, then turned me round when I got to the front and sent me away to the office” to book a ramp. After she tweeted Eurostar on X/Twitter, a ramp was eventually provided, but she said the incident had been “infuriating” and had added to a stressful trip to the Paralympics: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz73xy4djvno
12 September 2024
News provided by John Pring at www.disabilitynewsservice.com
