Report from People’s Parliament meeting on the impact of cuts on disabled people

Merry Cross of Reading Left Unity reports

On the evening of May 12, along with Micheline Mason of Wandsworth Left Unity, I was one of about 40-50 disabled people who assembled in the Houses of Parliament for a meeting about the impact of austerity measures. This was one of the meetings called by John McDonnell MP as part of the People’s Parliament season of public meetings in parliament and it was chaired by Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead.

Many of those there had also spent a large part of the day campaigning vociferously outside the DWP against the closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF). As a result Linda Burnip from Disabled People Against Cuts, who was one of the speakers, had a rather sore throat and had to keep taking sips of water! She laid out the full horror of the cumulative impact of all the welfare reforms with facts and figures, starting by saying that these cuts are pushing disabled people back 30 years and that we are losing 9 times more income than the non-disabled community. She also pointed out how sanctions on disabled people who simply cannot meet the demands of the system are driving some to suicide.

Going back to the closure of the ILF she pointed out that the 18,500 people in receipt of ILF currently are living in fear of being forced back into institutions – which, as we know all too well, can be horrendously abusive. With social care funding in England already at breaking point, a recent report said that 40% of disabled people say they can’t get out any more because of the cuts.

At the same time, private companies, like Capita and ATOS, have reaped £6.6 billion of taxpayers’ money. She pointed out the hypocrisy of government rhetoric about getting people back to work when Disabled Students Allowance has been cut, Disability Living Allowance is being cut and funding for Access to Work is being cut. The last two of these have been absolutely essential to many disabled people in terms of being able to secure jobs and carry them out.

Tracey Lazard from Inclusion London underlined much of what Linda said but also spoke passionately about the disabled people’s manifesto called Reclaiming Our Futures. As she said, this was drawn up by a number of representatives of different organisations and would attempt to reverse the rapid rush backwards this government has put in place. The manifesto can be found both on Inclusion London’s website and on DPAC’s website. At the end of the meeting John McDonnell MP stressed that we needed to say to MPs that to get our vote, support for Reclaiming Our Futures is non-negotiable. (Whilst some in Left Unity believe the manifesto to be idealistic and not necessarily the game changer we need overall, it is critical that we in this party take this on board.)

She said that she believes we are at a crossroads. Do we want a society where we are imprisoned in our own homes or institutions?

Quite by accident, I found myself sitting next to the next speaker, Francesca Martinez, the wonderful comedian and actress. Her speech was as lively and impassioned as you might have expected and she started by emphasising that these changes are really not about money… There is plenty available in truth; what is missing is the will. She also pointed out the complete irrationality of spending around £6 billion (on the private companies mentioned before) supposedly to save just a few million.

The last speaker was Laura (whose last name I didn’t catch, sadly) who was one of the central figures in the WOW campaign, which secured a debate in the Houses of Parliament about the need for a Cumulative Impact Assessment. We haven’t been able to force the government to produce this assessment, but as she pointed out, even if they did it would not be able to address the terrible stress experienced by those who have to fill in the endless assessment forms and put themselves through being tested by people who have rarely any understanding of living with their condition, with all of this being repeated at regular intervals, regardless of any successful appeals.

She stressed that we are all now calling for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) to be scrapped. It has already been condemned by the courts as discriminatory against people with learning difficulties and mental health problems and yet Iain Duncan Smith has insisted on continuing as though this judgement had never happened.

Just like other speakers before her, she emphasised that impairment and disablement can happen to anybody at any time and stated that predictions were now that 75% of the population will be disabled in some way before they reach pensionable age. So our fight is everyone’s fight!

The meeting was then opened up to speakers from the floor and again many spoke passionately and with much distress about both the general picture and their own dire circumstances. Paula Peters of DPAC spoke emotionally about having lost 18 friends to the WCA and urged people to support a vigil on July 8 outside the Royal Courts of Justice, when the Mental Health Resistance Network is going back to court to tackle IDS about his failure to act on the judgement against the WCA as discriminatory.

A great pity was that there were only three MPs in the room, including the chair and John McDonnell! Happily though, it was all being videoed by Obi, who has already done so much for both DPAC and Left Unity, and the video will be posted on the People’s Parliament website. I gather that a report from the meeting will also be sent to all MPs.