Success for DAN at the DWP‏

D.A.N Action Report — 17th April 2008.

Today more than twen­ty dis­abled activists occu­pied the foy­er of Adel­phi
House, where the Depart­ment of Work and Pen­sions is based. At 1.30 p.m.
cam­paign­ers breezed in, tak­ing over the foy­er, leaflet­ing and ask­ing to hand
deliv­er a let­ter to James Pur­nell, Sec­re­tary of State for the Depart­ment of

D.A.N Action Report — 17th April 2008.

Today more than twen­ty dis­abled activists occu­pied the foy­er of Adel­phi
House, where the Depart­ment of Work and Pen­sions is based. At 1.30 p.m.
cam­paign­ers breezed in, tak­ing over the foy­er, leaflet­ing and ask­ing to hand
deliv­er a let­ter to James Pur­nell, Sec­re­tary of State for the Depart­ment of
Work and Pen­sions. Mem­bers of D.A.N. the Dis­abled peo­ple’s Direct Action
Net­work refused to leave until a meet­ing was arranged with James Pur­nell to
dis­cuss Inca­pac­i­ty Ben­e­fit and the changes which are forc­ing one mil­lion
dis­abled peo­ple into pover­ty and unpaid work place­ments. James Pur­nell was
out of the coun­try, so D.A.N. activists met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the
DWP and Sal­ly Witch­er from the Office for Dis­abil­i­ty Issues and held long
dis­cus­sions.

The result of these dis­cus­sions is, D.A.N. have been promised a meet­ing
with James Pur­nell, the date of which is to be con­firmed. We are very
con­fi­dent that the meet­ing will hap­pen as we have promised to come back for
anoth­er vis­it if it does­n’t.

Best Wish­es.

Mike Hig­gins
(On behalf of the DAN Press Team)

E‑mail: danpress@blueyonder.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)114 225 8676
Mob: +44 (0)7956 856060

Here is the let­ter from the meeting/action on the 17th April.….

DWP
Depart­ment for Work and Pen­sions
Our address
Lev­el 2
The Ade1phi
1–11 John Adam Street Lon­don
WC2N 6HT
Our phone num­ber 020 7962 8361
Our fax num­ber 020 7712 2235
Web­site www.dwp.gov.uk

17 April 2008

To the Dis­abled Peo­ple’s Direct Action Net­work (DAN)

This is to con­firm that I met with DAN rep­re­sen­ta­tives at The Ade1phi today. In dis­cus­sion with DAN, I con­firmed that:

• DWP will respond to DAN’s let­ter to the Sec­re­tary of State with­in two weeks, con­firm­ing that the Sec­re­tary of State will meet with DAN

• DWP will arrange for that meet­ing to take place with­in one month of today

I have not­ed DAN’s request that the meet­ing should be sched­uled for an after­noon and would also appre­ci­ate it if DAN would inform us of any fur­ther access require­ments.

Yours faith­ful­ly

Stephen Mar­tin
Wel­fare to Work Direc­tor
Email stephen.martin1@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

INVESTOR IN PEOPLE

=======================

DISABLED PEOPLES’ DIRECT ACTION NETWORK — PRESS RELEASE

DISABLED CAMPAIGNERS — RESISTING POLITICAL INCAPACITY AND DEMANDING AN END
TO HARASSMENT

ACTION: Dis­abled Cam­paign­ers are plan­ning to protest against the DWP (Adel­phi House, 1 to 10 John Adams Street, WC2) at lunchtime today (17th April). We will be deliv­er­ing the attached let­ter for James Pur­nell (Work and Pen­sions Sec­re­tary) and will be request­ing a meet­ing with him.

WE ARE SICK OF: Politi­cians who attack minori­ties — per­ceived as easy tar­gets — for pub­lic spend­ing cuts.

THE GOVERNMENT SAYS: Do as we say, or risk los­ing ben­e­fits.
OUR RESPONSE: We call on all Dis­abled Claimants to defend their needs, and DWP Staff / Trade Unions not to coop­er­ate with this harass­ment of Dis­abled Peo­ple.

THE GOVERNMENT SAYS: They want to re-test all claims for IB (Inca­pac­i­ty Ben­e­fit).
OUR RESPONSE: Claimants are already reg­u­lar­ly test­ed in rela­tion to their claims through ques­tion­naires and phys­i­cal assess­ments by Ben­e­fits Agen­cies / Med­ical Ser­vices.

THE GOVERNMENT SAYS: Replace “Sick-Notes” with “Well-Notes”.
OUR RESPONSE: This cyn­i­cal exer­cise won’t halt dis­crim­i­na­tion against Dis­abled Peo­ple in the work place, or increase our chances of employ­ment. It will how­ev­er, force more Dis­abled Peo­ple into pover­ty.

PRESS CONTACTS:
DAN Press Offi­cer for this Action:
Mike Hig­gins (0114 225 8676 / danpress@blueyonder.co.uk)

Live on the Action:
Bar­ry Schaufer (07508 634 228)
Nick Saun­ders (07956 682 830)

Pic­tures from the Action by:
Sid Bail­i­ty (07951 050 153)
Hugh Hill ( hughiehill@hotmail.com)
Mozaz (Indy­media: 07816 572 505)

Some affect­ed IB claimants:
Clair Lewis (07970 959 791)
Col­in Rev­ell (07518 350133)
Stel­la Ryan (07904 935 413)

RELATED POINTS / ISSUES:
. A one-off assess­ment only gives a snap­shot of a Dis­abled Claiman­t’s con­di­tion at that moment.
. Wel­fare Reform ignores the real­i­ty of invis­i­ble and fluc­tu­at­ing impair­ments and con­tributes to dis­crim­i­na­tion against all Dis­abled Peo­ple.
. Polit­i­cal and media cov­er­age sug­gest­ing there has been a sig­nif­i­cant increase in IB claims since the 1980s is mis­lead­ing. IB was actu­al­ly intro­duced in 1995.
. A much high­er per­cent­age, than pre­vi­ous­ly, of Dis­abled Peo­ple are now liv­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty and claim­ing ben­e­fits, rather than being insti­tu­tion­alised.
. A “long hours / short breaks” work cul­ture makes it hard­er for Dis­abled Peo­ple to cope with employ­ment. Rather than attack­ing Dis­abled Peo­ple as work-shy and lazy, the gov­ern­ment could pro­vide incen­tives which change work­place cul­ture to encour­ag­ing flexi-time or work­ing from home for exam­ple.
. There is a lack of access to mean­ing­ful work­place edu­ca­tion and train­ing. This leads to many Dis­abled Peo­ple lack­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tions, job skills and there­fore decent jobs with ade­quate incomes.
. Instead of attack­ing Dis­abled Peo­ple, the Gov­ern­ment should pros­e­cute employ­ers who repeat­ed­ly break the law by dis­crim­i­nat­ing against Dis­abled Peo­ple
. For more details about the back­ground to DAN’s con­cerns, see the attached leaflet, which we will be dis­trib­ut­ing at today’s event.

Swan­ner
sheffieldwelfare_an@yahoo.co.uk
http://www.swansheffield.org.uk

==================================

The Leaflet being hand­ed out by DAN at today’s Action‏

DAN’S SICK NOTE

The Dis­abled Peo­ples’ Direct Action Net­work are protest­ing at the Depart­ment
for Work and Pen­sions in cen­tral Lon­don today.

We are deliv­er­ing a let­ter for James Pur­nell (Work and Pen­sions Sec­re­tary)
and will be demand­ing a meet­ing with him today.

WE ARE SICK OF:

. Politi­cians who attack minori­ties — that they see as easy tar­gets — for
pub­lic spend­ing cuts, and biased media / press cov­er­age that neg­a­tive­ly
por­trays Dis­abled Peo­ple as lazy scroungers and ben­e­fit cheats.

. Lack of access to mean­ing­ful edu­ca­tion and train­ing, lead­ing to a lack of
qual­i­fi­ca­tions and job skills.

. Work in hos­tile envi­ron­ments where employ­ers con­tin­ue to dis­crim­i­nate;
i.e. can’t tol­er­ate dis­abled employ­ees that need part time and flexi-time
work due to their impair­ments and don’t have mech­a­nisms that allow Dis­abled
Peo­ple to be absent with­out pri­or noti­fi­ca­tion, for their con­di­tion /
impair­ment.

. The lack of sup­port to help us get to work and func­tion in the work place;
eg, reg­u­lar breaks, short­er hours and a work­ing week that can be adapt­ed to
suit our needs.

DAN SAYS

DISABLED PEOPLE WANT:

. Politi­cians, press and media to wake up to the dam­age their words do.

. Access to mean­ing­ful edu­ca­tion and train­ing, lead­ing to prop­er
qual­i­fi­ca­tions and job skills.

. Jus­tice in the work­place with real penal­ties for dis­crim­i­na­to­ry employ­ers.

. A pos­i­tive approach to the inclu­sion of Dis­abled Peo­ple, espe­cial­ly those
with invis­i­ble and fluc­tu­at­ing impair­ments / con­di­tions.

. Solu­tions to pover­ty rather than poli­cies that com­pound it.

. An end to the dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices of the Work Capa­bil­i­ty Assess­ment
for Inca­pac­i­ty Ben­e­fit.

. A fair and just sys­tem that enables Dis­abled Peo­ple who seek work and a
non-puni­tive sys­tem for those Dis­abled Peo­ple who can­not cur­rent­ly work.

. Decent jobs with ade­quate incomes.