Protest the budget in Swansea

 Action, All Posts, Disability Activism, local groups, Motability, News, PIP, Politics, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms  No Responses »
Nov 182025
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

A vector graphic with an arm holding a wine-coloured megaphone. A spikey speech bubble points to the microphone and says, in all caps, "protest the budget"

 

Saturday 29th November

1pm @ Swansea Castle

With Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru) and others.

No disability cuts.

Hands of Motability.

Living wages.

Pension justice.

Rent control.

Trade union rights.

No to hate & division.

Make the rich pay.

 

The budget is being written by the Swansea West MP.

A photo of a mobile billboard featuring the face of the Torsten Bell MP. Text, in black on yellow, says: "Swansea West: £4,500 disability cuts backed by your MP." Text, in white on black says "11,592 disabled people here rely on that support. Torsten Bell supports these cuts. Protest disability support." At the bottom-right is the Amnesty International logo, which is black on yellow.

Disabled people defeated his Spring Statement & PIP disability cuts. Now he’s back with another anti-working-class budget. We will defeat him again.

First Bus workers are on strike over low pay.

65 student nurses have been told there are no vacancies when they graduate.

£25 million of job cuts at Swansea University.

Disabled people are still fighting cuts and Swansea women are still fighting for pension justice.

Politicians try to divide us by blaming migrants, low-paid workers, trans people & disabled people.

“An injury to one is an injury to all”

 

We want to co-organise a protest with everyone affected by the budget.

Contact Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru)

Swansea – Protest the budget (PDF for printing)

A graphic of the DPAC Cymru logo. There is the main DPAC logo to the left, which is a red, pink, blue, and green circle being held by four hands of different skin tones, with the words "disabled people against cuts" surrounding it, and an upside-down black traingle in the middle bearing the letters D P A C. On the right is the word Cymru (pronounced cum ree) (C Y M R U) in large letters, and the background of the letters are cutouts of the Welsh flag. Above Cymru (pronounced cum ree) is written the words Disabled People Against Cuts. Below Cymru (pronounced cum ree) are the words Rights, not charity, and the equivilant phrase translated into the Welsh language.

This is a graphic advertising a protest in Swansea on the 29th November. There are striped green and red corners with the text "Swansea" along the diagonal. A speech bubble that says "protest the budget" is exiting a megaphone. There are three clasped hands of different skin tones and the text "an injury to one is an injury to all" curves around them. Large text says "Saturday 29th November. 1pm at Swansea Castle, S A 1, 1 D W." Smaller text says "With Disabled People Against Cuts (D P A C) and others." Beneath, with a ripped paper effect, is text that says "no disability cuts. Hands off motability. Living wages. Pension justice. Rent control. Trade union rights. No to hate & division. Make the rich pay."

This is a graphic advertising a protest in Swansea on the 29th November. There are striped green and red corners with the text "Swansea" and "Protest" along the diagonals, and the text "budget" in the center. Beneath, in all-caps, is the text "Sat. 29 November. 1pm @ Swansea Castle." In the centre of the leaflet is text that starts in bold with "The budget is being written by the Swansea West MP." The text continues: "Disabled people defeated his Spring Statement & PIP disability cuts. Now he’s back with another anti-working-class budget. We will defeat him again." There are then five bullet points that say: "First Bus workers are on strike over low pay. 65 student nurses have been told there are no vacancies when they graduate. £25 million of job cuts at Swansea University. Disabled people are still fighting cuts and Swansea women are still fighting for pension justice. Politicians try to divide us by blaming migrants, low-paid workers, trans people & disabled people." At the bottom, with a ripped paper effect and a pink background, is the D P A C Cymru logo - a red, green, blue and pink wheel being held by four hands of different skin tones. To the right is a blue box that asks "Your org's logo here?" and text that says "We want to co-organise a protest with everyone affected by the budget", the email D P A C dot C Y M R U at gmail.com and the website "D P A C hyphen C Y M R U dot C A R R D dot C O."

Wales shunned with cancelled consultation on disability cuts #TakingThePIP

 Action, Disability Activism, DWP, local groups, News, PIP, welfare cuts, Welfare reforms  No Responses »
May 302025
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Welsh disability cuts consultation cancelled

The only face-to-face consultation for the whole of Wales has now been cancelled, after blatant and unlawful disability discrimination by the DWP in arranging such an inaccessible venue at the last minute.

The Cardiff disability cuts consultation on the 3rd was always going to be unfair, with half the proposals, the most important half, completely off the table for discussion.

 

Disabled people in Wales denied a voice

According to DWP email communications, there will now not be any in-person consultation on the disability cuts in Wales.

We demand that any house of commons vote on the proposals must not go ahead until we have had a full and genuine public consultation in Wales.

The DWP are now only offering an online-only event at the end of June. This is not acceptable. It is possible that MPs will already have voted by then.

Join us for a protest in Cardiff on the 3rd June

DPAC are sticking with our existing plans to protest.

Meet us outside the front of Cardiff Central train station at noon on the 3rd.

The DWP have shown themselves to be incapable of organising a fair consultation. Disabled People Against Cuts will hold our own.

Fortunately, we no longer have to worry about transport to an inaccessible location, and we will hold our protest at our original meeting point.

We invite everyone to join us and have their say. We demand that the DWP turn up and listen.

Updated plans for the day are available on our LinkTree: LinkTr.ee/SwanseaDPAC

Labour Minister dodges debate

A poster on a lamppost in Swansea. It says "Missing: have you seen our MP?" and has a picture of Torsten Bell MP.
Missing: have you seen our MP?

The Swansea West MP, Torsten Bell, a DWP minister, who defends the cuts, has insulted us and has refused to debate with us. His excuse was that a public consultation is taking place. Now that there is no public consultation taking place for the whole of Wales, Torsten must stop dodging and finally accept our invitation to debate his policies with Swansea Disabled People Against Cuts. We have written to him once again to ask for a fair and respectful public debate.

Dear Torsten Bell MP,

As you are aware, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) members in Swansea have repeatedly invited you to publicly debate with us on the issue of disability benefit cuts, which you have defended on Newsnight.

The only face-to-face consultation for the whole of Wales has now been cancelled, after blatant and unlawful disability discrimination by the DWP in arranging such an inaccessible venue at the last minute.

At 6pm on Friday 25 April, responding to our request for a debate, and after press attention over your lack of reply, you told us that you “have to politely decline given the Department is carrying out a public consultation with public events on this issue.”

Given your stated reason for declining, and given (according to the DWP) that there will now be no Wales in-person consultation, Swansea DPAC expect you to now “politely accept” our invitation, as supported in an open letter signed by more than 250 individuals and organisations, including a national Labour-affiliated trade union. (bit.ly/swansea-dpac-debate-invite)

We would ensure that the debate is carried out fairly, respectfully, and in an orderly fashion. Please let us know when you are available and we will book a venue.

We also seek a public retraction and apology for your repeated public accusations of dishonesty against Swansea Disabled People Against Cuts. We robustly defend claims we have made about your language and refusal to engage with us as asked. Given your accusations, we are putting this letter on the record, copying to journalists, and we will publish any reply, so that the public can judge.

Kind regards,

Swansea Disabled People Against Cuts

 

Stop Labour’s disability cuts

The proposals are fatally flawed, and the “pathways to work” green paper must be retracted.

The government must start again on welfare reform, listening to disabled people and carers in a genuine process of co-production. It cannot be an excuse for short-term budget cuts.

A photo of people protesting in Swansea city centre. They are holding a homemade banner that says "Disabled People Against Cuts" with the DPAC logo, which is a pink, purple, blue, green circle being held by four hands of varying skin tones. In the center is a triangle bearing the letters D P A C. Above the banner is a homemade placard that says "Betrayed and ignored by the Labour party". Beneath the banner is a placard in trans pride colours with a Welsh dragon and a DPAC logo. It says "Stand together". A young man and a young woman are holding the banner. To their left is a woman in a wheelchair holding a socialist party placard that says "stop benefit cuts". In the background is a man handing out DPAC leaflets.

Above: Swansea Disabled People Against Cuts protesting

Notes:

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) Cymru is a group of disabled people from across Wales. It is made up of Swansea DPAC, Cardiff and Valleys DPAC, and individual members in West, North, and Mid Wales. We are affiliated to Disabled People Against Cuts nationally.

Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru are releasing a full press statement on Monday morning. Press queries can be sent to swanseadpac@gmail.com

We also invite anyone interested in coming to our fortnightly meetings, or receiving our meeting minutes and email updates, to please get in touch.

Disability group hits back after Swansea MP “falsehoods” claim

 News  No Responses »
May 162025
 
DPAC Logo with text underneath "Disabled People Against Cuts" and then web address dpac.uk.net

Disabled people in Swansea insulted by Torsten Bell MP

Swansea Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) members have reacted strongly to public statements made on BlueSky by Swansea West MP Torsten Bell. The Labour MP has claimed that the group is “spreading falsehoods” and has made an allegation that they are “entirely falsely” attributing language to him.

A spokesperson for the group said, “being called liars is just the latest in a growing line of insults from this MP. He is welcome to argue that his remarks are taken out of context. We would invite the public to judge. However, following questions on the matter from the press, the MP has instead chosen to delete a post and the ‘edit history’. He is the one who has deleted the context, not us.”

The group has also highlighted offensive remarks made by other Labour MPs, such as Rachel Reeves MP, who defended plans to cut disability benefits by comparing it to “children’s pocket money”.

Politicians refuse to listen to disabled people

In an open letter signed by more than 250 people and organisations, including a national Labour-affiliated trade union, Swansea DPAC has made an appeal for a fair and respectful public debate with MPs over the issues. The group says it is now at a stalemate following the MP’s refusal to take part, but says it intends to host the debate regardless.

A Swansea DPAC spokesperson added, “we do not want a personal exchange of insults. We want to defeat the disability cuts (that Torsten defends) politically. We want an end to the offensive and upsetting language being used by many Labour MPs. We want a structured public debate, not a public spat carried out over social media. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, that’s all we’re getting from Torsten.”

“Disabled people are certainly not getting anything close to a fair debate from an inaccessible so-called ‘public consultation’ that refuses to consult on half the issues, and repeatedly fails to respond to disabled people with access requirements. We are fighting to be heard.”

Stop the disability cuts

The group is calling for the proposed cuts to be scrapped, and for the government to start again, genuinely listening to disabled people and carers from day one in a process of co-production.

 

At a protest, wrapped in a rainbow pride flag, stands a young man with blue hearing aids. he is holding a placard in blue, pink and white trans pride colours. The placard says "Stand together" and has a picture of the Welsh dragon on it. Below the dragon is the Disabled People Against Cuts logo. The logo is a circle being held by four hands of different skin tones. The logo has an upside-down black triangle in the centre bearing the letters D P A C