Pat's Petition is going to Westminster on the 6th February to meet with Shadow Work and Pensions Liam Byrne to find out what Labour will do to support sick and disabled people. WOW Petition was created to ensure that the work done by Pat's Petition will continue into the future and we have some points and questions for Labour to answer too.
An Open Letter to the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary
Dear Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP
The
WOW Petition is a crowd-sourced grass roots campaign created and
supported by disabled people, people with physical and mental health
illness, care workers, carers and family members. We have come together
because we are frightened. We have each been affected by the devastating
consequences of the Welfare Reform Act and feel we are fighting for our
lives.
We
are determined to continue and build upon the achievements of Pat’s
Petition. We are not satisfied that the government will understand or
care about the consequences of the cuts and changes to benefits and
services until a comprehensive impact assessment has been completed. We
are aware of the Prime Minister’s intention to scrap impact and equality
assessments. It is vital therefore, that a cumulative impact assessment
is carried out with urgency.
Since
the WOW Petition was launched on December 18th 2012, at the time of writing almost 18,000 people
have supported us. We expect to reach the 100,000 target as we expand
into new initiatives and the campaign grows.
Our
petition has been championed by disabled actress and comedian Francesca
Martinez. Francesca has spoken out publicly against the arbitrary cuts
and the unfairness of disproportionately targeting the benefits sick and
disabled people rely on. She has appeared on Newsnight and BBC This
Week Programmes to voice her concerns. Baroness Grey-Thompson has also
supported our campaign.
Sick
and disabled people do not understand why the government wishes to wage
a “war on welfare” against them. People who are genuinely too sick to
work have been cruelly labelled as “feckless” and “scroungers” by
government ministers. Welfare statistics have, we believe, been
purposefully misrepresented, and the tabloid media has chosen to wage a
campaign of misinformation and misleading stories about the level of
welfare fraud. This in turn has altered public perceptions of disabled
people and hardened attitudes towards benefit claimants.
Where
is the sense in forcing people suffering with long-term and chronic
conditions onto a depressed employment market where eight people on
average are fighting for every job? People with mental health problems
find it especially difficult to overcome employment discrimination and
to establish themselves in work even when the economy is buoyant. The
greater cruelty is that many of these people will not have access to
treatment or therapy.
Sick
and disabled people do want to work, but the Work Capability Assessment
completely fails to recognise their limitations or how they can
realistically function in the workplace. The consequences of forcing
people to look for work and mandatory Work Related Activity under threat
of losing income could cause illness to deteriorate and place a further
burden on stretched NHS and mental health services. Sick and disabled
people can and do make huge contributions to society. This does not have
to be purely based on their ability to make money. Voluntary work and
caring is vital for the economy but isn’t paid. For some “making work
pay” will not improve their life chances, opportunities and finances.
These people deserve to be better supported.
The
third ‘Harrington Report’ revealed that just 9% of people expected to
recover within twelve months had found work eighteen months later. The
support to get people back to work isn’t working. Less than 1.5% of disabled people referred to the Work Programme had found employment.
We
are certain that you are already aware of the failings of the fitness
to work test, and the increasing numbers of recorded deaths resulting
from the loss of income and stress. The fear of the Atos envelope
landing on the doorstep is real. When people know that they are not
going to have a fair and honest assessment that takes the opinions of
their doctors and consultants into account they feel frustrated,
helpless and terrified.
Over
330,000 people have been forced to appeal a decision they believe to be
wrong. 40% of these are overturned, rising to 70-80% with specialist
advice. The government is removing legal aid to make obtaining legal
advice at the tribunal stage even more difficult, and we can only
presume that it is a cynical attempt to deter people from appealing
rather than fixing a broken system.
Under
clause 99 of the Welfare Reform Act sick people could be forced onto
Jobseekers Allowance whilst potentially waiting many months for the DWP
to reconsider a challenge to a decision. These changes are going to have
a huge impact on people’s lives. It is insufficient and dismissive of
government ministers to blame Labour for introducing Employment and
Support Allowance and to complain that they have inherited a flawed
assessment process. This is an unacceptable defence for a serious
failure.
We
want a reassurance that the current fitness to work test will be
scrapped and replaced with a credible medical assessment carried out by
medical professionals who are allowed to apply their discretionary
judgement based on their medical expertise. People feel they are being
‘tricked’ by confusing forms, tick box assessments and an impossibly
narrow set of descriptors which excludes severe and enduring illness
from the support group. Assessment recordings should be made available
to all who request them to reassure people that the face to face tests
are above-board.
People
will and do work when they are well and able and appropriately
supported. Battling illness and battling the current benefits system for
some, unfortunately, is simply too much to cope with.
Universal
Credit is yet an untested system of delivering benefits but the
uncertainty surrounding it is causing a great deal of worry and
confusion. Contributory ESA is excluded but the means tested component
is not. Some people receive an element of both.
Hundreds
of thousands of sick people have lost and will lose all of their
Employment and Support Allowance after 365 days because they have a
working partner, regardless of whether they are recovered or not. This
arbitrary cut is penalising working families and proves that the
government’s aim was to cut the budget and not to support sick people
back to work. Without access to specialist employment advice they will
be further excluded and isolated from the workplace.
We
learn that in Merseyside alone the cost of the new “bedroom tax” to
social tenants will be £16 million annually. What is most disturbing is
that three-quarters of the households include a disabled person.
Depending on the locality some people will be asked to pay council tax
from their disability benefit incomes.
The
government promised vulnerable people that “they had nothing to fear”
and that “disability benefits are being protected” but Coalition MPs
voted to cap the annual benefit rise of Employment and Support Allowance
at 1%. This also includes the support group as only the disability
premium is excluded from the cap. With food prices expected to rise
above 5% this year sick and disabled people will struggle to buy the
basic necessities. Many, including households with disabled children,
are already having to cancel hospital appointments due to transport
costs, take out loans to buy essentials and are choosing whether to heat
their homes or buy groceries.
Local
authorities are being forced to cut back massively on the care and
support services they deliver to vulnerable people. The charity Scope
report a funding gap of £1.2billion for adult social care. 40% of
disabled people who require care are saying that their basic needs are
not being met.
Disability
living allowance is being replaced by the personal independence payment
and the ‘goalposts’ are being moved so that by 2018, 600,000 fewer
disabled people will be entitled to the benefit as would have received
DLA. This is another arbitrary cut as changing the eligibility will not
change the disability. Just because someone is ‘less disabled’ than
another doesn’t mean that they don’t require the additional support to
allow them to stay in work, maintain their dignity, be independent and
have an equal chance in life as their peers. 100,000 disabled people are
expecting to lose their mobility vehicles because they can move a mere
20 metres. Not even the length of the Commons floor. How is this
“supporting disabled people”?
The
cumulative impact of these cuts and changes, inadequate social care,
along with many others such as the cuts to Children’s Disability
Premiums under Universal Credit, the scrapping of Independent Living
Fund for disabled adults who live alone, closure of day-care centres,
degradation of mental health services, NHS services, amongst others, is
too much to bear.
- We
would like to know how Labour intends to correct the injustices sick
and disabled people are currently having to cope with under the policies
implemented by the Coalition government?
- What reforms to the welfare system does Labour have planned?
- Will Labour scrap and replace the Work Capability Assessment with an objective and trustworthy medical test?
- How do you plan to support those disabled people who have lost work through the Remploy closures?
We
would like to thank you for considering our concerns and we look
forward to your response. Our hope is that we can co-operate together for
a better and fairer future for all sick and disabled people in the UK.
The WOW petition team
email info@wowpetition.com
website www.wowpetition.com
The Petition
We
call for a Cumulative Impact Assessment of Welfare Reform, and a New
Deal for sick & disabled people based on their needs, abilities and
ambitions
Responsible department: Department for Work and Pensions
We call for:
A
Cumulative Impact Assessment of all cuts and changes affecting sick
& disabled people, their families and carers, and a free vote on
repeal of the Welfare Reform Act.
An immediate end to the Work Capability Assessment, as voted for by the British Medical Association.
Consultation
between the Depts of Health & Education to improve support into
work for sick & disabled people, and an end to forced work under
threat of sanctions for people on disability benefits.
An
Independent, Committee-Based Inquiry into Welfare Reform, covering but
not limited to: (1) Care home admission rises, daycare centres, access
to education for people with learning difficulties, universal mental
health treatments, Remploy closures; (2) DWP media links, the ATOS
contract, IT implementation of Universal Credit; (3) Human rights abuses
against disabled people, excess claimant deaths & the disregard of
medical evidence in decision making by ATOS, DWP & the Tribunal
Service.
