UK
Disabled activists to deliver a book for every MP on austerity's impact on their community


DAMNING evidence of deaths and suffering, linked to austerity, among disabled people will be delivered to every MP in the House of Commons today.

Relatives of disabled people who died will join activists delivering 650 copies of a new book, How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence. The title holds the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) responsible for implementing Tory government measures against people with disabilities.

Highlighted measures include Work Capability Assessments, which reclassified sick and disabled people as “fit for work,” depriving them of benefits if they were unable to comply.

The book has been written by John Pring, editor of the Disability News Service, and is published by Pluto Press.

It alleges that the DWP’s actions have led to the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of disabled people since 2010.
It includes the personal stories of many victims, including people who took their own lives.

Activists will gather outside the DWP’s headquarters, Caxton House in Westminster, at 11.15 am. Dressed in black, they will then deliver the book to MPs. Attendees will include Coronation Street actor-activist Cherylee Houston and former Eastenders actor Lisa Hammond.

Pluto Press managing director Versuchka Selbach said: “It is an exceptional work of investigative journalism that is both heart-breaking and shocking. These stories can’t be ignored any longer.”

The book is based on evidence gathered by the author including documents from the National Archives, coroners’ reports, government documents and testimonies from disabled people and relatives of those who died.

John McArdle, co-founder of the disability rights Black Triangle Campaign, said: “The department provides a casebook of how not to run a social security system. The current disability benefit assessment system is making people even sicker.”

He called on the Labour government “to sit down with us to co-produce a safe and efficient disability benefit system that provides a genuine safety net to those who need it.”

Ellen Clifford of the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations’ Coalition said: “Across the UK, there is growing concern about the impact of yet more cuts. It is apparent that lessons from the past are being deliberately ignored.”

The DWP was invited to comment.

Peter Lazenby

MORNING STAR

Monday, September 2, 2024