News from Mike, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty: Single mothers hit by the Benefits Cap, and their supporters, once more descended on Edinburgh Council on 3rd October. [Photo shows a previous protest in May 2017.] Demonstrators protested outside the City Chambers on the Royal Mile and then all moved into the public gallery to support the deputation addressing the Council committee meeting. “Scrap the Benefits Cap” and “Stop the Evictions” demand the campaigners. The Westminster government’s benefits cap is drastically cutting the Housing Benefit paid to many families, especially – but not only – lone parents. … Read more
Mental Wealth Alliance — action against Royal College of Occupational Therapists links with Capita and PIP assessments. Sound system and open mic, placards. Thur 27 July – meet at Borough Tube at 9.45am – finish after lunch Where: Royal College of Occupational Therapists, 106 – 114 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1LB The recent conference of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) was sponsored by Capita. Their magazine has also been running adverts for PIP assessors – (an OT with 2 years post qualifying experience can earn £23.5k pa – Capita is able to … Read more
14- 21 July Disabled People Against Cuts Week of Action #SummerofDiscontent #NotOneMoreDay #CutsKill Tuesday 18th July – national Day of Action – check DPAC website for more info. Our local action Tuesday 18th July 1-2pm Protest vs benefit cuts & sanctions No Camden cuts to social care Kentish Town Jobcentre 178 Kentish Town Rd London NW5 2AG with WinVisible, Unite Community Camden, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, Single Mothers’ Self-Defence, Camden Momentum, English Collective of Prostitutes, All African Women’s Group, and others Wednesday 19th July – Lobby of Parliament for … Read more
Summary of our submission to the Public Accounts Committee in 2016 Benefit sanctions and threat of sanction are brutal, have killed people and must be ended. Women, including mothers, and families of colour, are the hardest hit by benefit cuts including the increase in sanctions. It is particularly cruel to sanction, or impose conditions that include the threat to sanction: sick and disabled people, mothers and children where the mother is on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), mothers of children under five, and full-time carers on Income Support. Asylum seekers were the first to be made destitute … Read more
With friends of Lawrence Bond at his inquest on 16 June 2017. Being found fit for work was kept out of the inquest, which lasted only half an hour. Anne Marie O’Sullivan and her mother Eileen, also bereaved, Unite Community Camden, members of Camden Momentum and other concerned people attended with WinVisible. Read more: Disability News Service interviews Iris Green, Lawrence Bond’s sister. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/shock-after-inquest-ignores-fitness-for-work-and-jobcentre-concerns/ At a showing of “I, Daniel Blake” in memory of Lawrence Bond, friends spoke about him and against the Work Capability Assessment (February 2017). See Payday’s short film https://vimeo.com/221415708/c5ca5f7c10
People are told that everyone has to have a face-to-face interview for PIP. This is not true. Official DWP guidance sets out exemption from the interview, where there is enough evidence on paper to establish your daily living needs and mobility needs, and/or where the face-to-face interview is likely to be stressful to you. (The guidance also covers the negative situation where they look at your form and think you don’t qualify for PIP, so won’t call you in. Make sure you are using the parts of the guidance which support you getting PIP.) See … Read more
At a film and TV awards ceremony, Ken Loach, director of “I, Daniel Blake” condemns government policies which make people destitute in his BAFTA speech.
PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . . PRESS RELEASE . . . Gill Thompson’s legal case for her brother David, who was diabetic and died in 2013 after his Jobseekers Allowance was sanctioned, has just been launched. Gill’s legal team wrote to the Hertfordshire Coroner setting out why there should be an investigation, including of breach of the right to life and of DWP procedure sanctioning claimants (see Leigh Day press release). David’s death was put down to “natural causes” and there was no inquest. Public support through CrowdJustice fundraising has enabled … Read more
Click on link to read our history of six years of benefit actions by the disability movement and bereaved relatives, up to the resignation of Work and Pensions Minister Iain Duncan Smith in March 2016. actions-that-led-to-resignation-of-ids-latest-5-april-2016