Press release January 2011
ATOS ATTACK- Second National Day of Action Against Benefit Cuts
Where- London - starting at Triton Square, NW1 - January 24th from - 2pm
PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
Anne Novis MBE a member of DPAC says “ society is allowing the government to implement the most discriminatory and harshest attacks on disabled people ever seen. Those that stand-by and allow this are the same as those who stood-by when disabled people were targeted by the Nazi’s for annihilation. For anyone who thinks that is too harsh I want to say clearly that it is our lives we’re fighting for, some have already killed themselves due to what is happening to us and many more are considering it.”
Disabled people and their supporters angry at the way they are being exploited by ATOS healthcare who are making ever increasing profits off the backs of disabled people’s misery plan to mobilise around the country for the second National Day of Action Against Benefit Cuts.
The anger against ATOS is now so widespread that dissent has spread to even rural locations such as Lydney in Gloucestershire, hardly the sort of place one would imagine being a hotbed of resistance and revolt.
Protestors are angry that in spite of the well documented criticisms of the Work Capability Assessment by the government’s own review carried out by Professor Harrington as well as by CAB and Disabled People’s own Organisations ATOS have once more been awarded a £300 million contract by DWP to keep carrying out these flawed assessments which ruin lives and lead to suicides.
Another DPAC supporter recently wrote “My Uncle committed suicide last summer. He tried to get ESA and succeeded in getting it by appealing at a tribunal. However, the DWP had him go for another medical assessment through ATOS healthcare and they, again, awarded him 0 points. He hung himself a few days after receiving the papers for the second appeal tribunal.”
Disabled people are further dismayed that ATOS seem to be the preferred choice of the coalition government to be paid yet more huge sums of money to throw disabled people off Disability Living Allowance.
DPAC co-founder Eleanor Lisney said “ ATOS’s assessment methods have been proven to be flawed with as many as 70% of disabled people disallowed ESA having it re-instated at appeal. The 8,000 appeals a week against refusal to award ESA are swamping the Tribunal system at goodness knows what cost to the taxpayer.”
DPAC say that although they have no idea yet how the government plans to reduce the number of claimants for Disability Living Allowance by 20% what they are sure of is that those disabled people refused DLA are not going to experience a miracle cure but will instead be left without the vital financial support they need to meet the additional costs of being disabled.
ENDS
press liason - Linda Burnip 01926 842253/0771 492 7533 Disabled People Against Cuts ( DPAC) mail@dpac.uk.net
Anne Novis MBE ( contactable through press liaison)
Notes for editors
http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/
Disability Living Allowance ( DLA)
This has 2 components Care and Mobility. It is a benefit paid to both those in and out of work and is designed to meet the additional costs of disability.
Extra costs of disability to households
DWP’s own research quotes figures that show poverty rate rises from non disabled households to disabled households from 4.5 to 29.7 percentage points per household.
Saunders calculated that the extra cost of having at least one household member with a disability is about 37 per cent of disposable income; that is, a household containing one member who is disabled would need 37 per cent more income than a comparable household without such a person to reduce the incidence of hardship to the same level.
Source: Sanders (2006) in DWP Research Report No 542
Review of international evidence on the cost of disability David Stapleton, Ali Protik and Christal Stone
Extra costs of disability to individuals
A Rowntree report (2004) found that the weekly income of disabled people who are solely dependent on benefits is approximately £200 below the amount required for them to ensure an acceptable, equitable quality of life’
However, even if receiving maximum benefits, disabled people still experience a substantial shortfall in income. The income of disabled people solely dependent on benefits, irrespective of the type or level of their need, is approximately £200 less than the weekly amount required for them to ensure a minimum standard of living.
Source: Disabled people’s costs of living: ‘More than you would think’ (2004) by Noel Smith, Sue Middleton, Kate Ashton-Brooks, Lynne Cox and Barbara Dobson with Lorna Reith, is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (ISBN 1 85935 236 7,
Employment
The employment rates of disabled people are around 48% compared with around 78% of non-disabled people Source Labour Force Survey, Quarter 2,2010
Only 20% of those with mental health problems are in employment- Source- Labour Force Survey, Jan-March 2009.
Suicide Cases
A disabled Scottish poet and writer who killed himself after receiving 2 letters one saying his Incapacity Benefit had been stopped and another that his Housing Benefit had been stopped –
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/obituaries/paul-reekie-poet-writer-icon... A disabled woman fighting for re-housing for over 5 years as well as having her social care cancelled left a suicide note saying “No human or animal should ever have to go through life as I did.”
http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2010/mar/jennyfer-spencer-‘when-you-read... attempted suicide by ex-school caretaker who had brain tumour and was unable to sleep, had weakness down one side of his body and was having fits. His GP deemed him unfit to work but the 15 minute Atos medical declared him fit for work. This would have led to his benefits being cut by over £60 per week.
what one disabled woman says about the cuts “I could go on and on, about the misery it would cause, to remove DLA. It would lead to a slow death painful death. Worth adding here, I have spoken to many in my situation, who are discussing mass suicide, rather than suffer more health miseries, for which there are no cures! They are not depressed, but just pragmatic about the fate that awaits all of us.”
