Joint statement by Black Triangle Campaign, CarerWatch, Disabled People Against Cuts, Mental Health Resistance Network, Pats Petition, #NewApproach and WOWPetition
The WCA presumes that there are too many people on disability benefits because disabled people are too lazy or too comfortable living on benefits to work.
It is founded in the idea that disabled people need to be harassed and hounded out of their comfortable life into finding work under the threat of loss of benefits.
No one is comfortable living on benefits. Disabled people are no more lazy that the rest of the population.
The real reason that there are so many people on benefits is that society does not include disabled people.
We do not have the same access to education, transport, housing and jobs.
Social attitudes ensure that disabled people in the workplace are seen as a problem, rather than an equal opportunity.
And there are large numbers of disabled people who simply can not work. Why should they be harassed? Why should they be hounded?. Why should they have to live in fear?.
We know, and this report confirms, that many people have wrongly been found “fit for work” when they can’t work.
We also know and the UK courts have confirmed WCA discriminates against claimants with mental health impairments.
The Work and Pensions Committee report recommends “improvements” to make the system more workable and less harmful.
This is pointless, because it would not make the WCA any less wrong or any more useful
We call once again on Labour to commit to scrapping the WCA and to address the real problems that disabled people on benefits face in society.
We call once again on the British Medical Association to send guidance on DWP rules “29 and 35” which allows doctors to prevent foreseeable harm being done to ‘at risk’ patients.
They didn’t improve slavery, they abolished it, because it was wrong.
They didn’t amend Apartheid , they ended it because it was wrong
The WCA is wrong, and it needs to be abolished
Signed
Andy Greene, Disabled People Against Cuts Annie Howard, Disabled People Against Cuts Bob Ellard, Disabled People Against Cuts Debbie Jolly, Disabled People Against Cuts Denise McKenna, Mental Health Resistance Network Jane Bence, #NewApproach Eleanor Firman, Disabled People Against Cuts Ellen Clifford, Disabled People Against Cuts Gail Ward, Disabled People Against Cuts John James McArdle, Black Triangle Campaign Katy Marchant, Disabled People Against Cuts Linda Burnip, Disabled People Against Cuts Michelle Maher, WOWPetition Nick Dilworth, #NewApproach Pat Onions, Pats Petition Paula Peters, Disabled People Against Cuts Rick Burgess, #NewApproach Roger Lewis, Disabled People Against Cuts Rosemary O’Neil, Carerwatch Roy Bard, Disabled People Against Cuts Wayne Blackburn, #NewApproach
Scrap it nothing more nothing less, it has to go and revert back to the PCA until a system that is both fair to the disabled society and works without cause harm and suffering to this group of people is designed and rigorously tested.
It is nice to see a joint statement from the 4 grassroots campaign groups I have always believed in but now is the time before the next election to put any differences to one side and all pull the strings for the common good and get rid of this nasty inhuman and draconian assessment that is destroying so many good lives and is costing a fortune of moneys that could have gone a long way in bringing real equality.
Thank you I have the faith which I have come close to losing but is still there in tatters
all I can say is thank you for standing up for people like myself, I just hope they listen.