This is a joint venture between CarerWatch, The Broken of Britain, Disabled people Against Cuts and ACTnow.
Everyone is urged to support this.
To all our members and supporters;
The Labour party conference starts in Liverpool on Saturday. As we all know, Labour were the architects of Employment Support Allowance and the ‘not fit for purpose’ Work Capability Assessment which is so stressful and traumatic it was linked to the suicide of claimants whilst Labour were still in power. The Labour party are the official party of opposition, but they are not opposing the Welfare Reform Bill as they should be and seem to have forgotten that the 10 million sick and or disabled people plus carers, friends and family in the UK have the power to vote. It is time for us to remind Labour that they will not get any of our votes if they do not start to oppose the parts of the Welfare Reform Bill set to return sick people, disabled people and carers to a life of desperation, dependency, despair and charity.
We are asking you to help with a mass email to the Labour party to remind them of our voting power. Please include the following details in your email and send it to Ed Miliband, Margaret Curran (shadow minister for disability) and Liam Byrne (shadow minister for DWP). If you have time please also email it to any Labour MP and particularly any members of the shadow cabinet. We have provided a list of email contacts below.
Please aim to send your email at 11am tomorrow (Thursday the 22nd September) If you can’t send the email at 11am, don’t worry, just please try to send it at any time between then and the end of Labour party conference on Wednesday 29th September.
The email subject should read “Your Silence Is Deafening”
We suggest embedding a link to this youtube video “The Sound of Silence” To embed the video into your email just copy and paste the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsX03LOMhI
Then please copy the following text into your email;
Dear (insert name here)
‘The 10 million disabled people in this country plus their carers, relatives and friends are watching what your party do in relation to disability issues and wondering why you seem disinterested in trying to get their votes by opposing the savage attacks against disabled people being made by the Coalition government. During conference season we wish to remind you, the architects of Employment and Support Allowance to ‘never fall ill, never grow old, never become disabled, never become a carer’, for if you do, as we have found, not even Labour will speak up for you.’
If you would like to add a short, personal message explaining to Labour how you feel about their lack of support for sick, disabled people and carers then please include it after the suggested text. You might also like to include a photo of yourself, or perhaps a photo of what disability, sickness or caring means to you. Don’t worry if you don’t want to personalise the email, sending the suggested text is fine.
Contact details below
Ed Miliband MP, Leader of the Labour Party House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AATel: 020 7219 4778
ed.miliband.mp@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Work & Pensions Liam Byrne House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 6953
Fax: 020 7219 1431
byrnel@parliament.uk House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 8102
Fax: 020 7219 6656
margaret.curran.mp@parliament.uk Shadow Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP coopery@parliament.uk Shadow Chief Secretary Angela Eagle eaglea@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills John Denham denhamj@parliament.uk Cabinet Office and Minister for the Olympics Tessa Jowell jowellt@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Caroline Flint House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 4407
Fax: 020 7219 1277
caroline.flint.mp@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport Ivan Lewis House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 2609
lewisi@parliament.uk Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Hilary Benn House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 5770
hilary.benn.mp@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Defence Jim Murphy House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 4615
Fax: 020 7219 5657
jimmurphymp@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Mary Creagh House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 6984/020 7219 8766
Fax: 020 7219 4257
creaghm@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Election Coordinator Andy Burnham House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 8250
andy.burnham.mp@parliament.uk Shadow Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice Sadiq Khan House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 6967
Fax: 020 7219 6477
sadiqkhanmp@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Meg Hillier House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 5325
Fax: 020 7219 8768
meghilliermp@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Health John Healey House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 6359
Fax: 020 7219 2451
healeyj@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Shaun Woodward House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 2680
woodwardsh@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Ann McKechin House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 8239
Fax: 020 7219 1770
ann.mckechin.mp@parliament.uk Constituency Shadow Secretary of State for Transport Maria Eagle House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 4019
Fax: 020 7219 1157
eaglem@parliament.uk Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 3925
Fax: 020 7219 3816
hainp@parliament.uk Steven Timms MP timmss@parliament.uk
stephen@stephentimms.org.uk
Karen Buck MP
buckk@parliament.ukTags: Labour Party conference
21 September 2011 at 16:18 |
I know one person who will be attending the conference. I shall email him and ask him if he would be kind enough to keep in touch with me re welfare issues at the conference. I shall also email all the people on the list with a personalised email. I may actually attempt proper typed letters which may be taken more notice of.
Re who we do or do not vote for ——- what choices are there? That issue is very depressing. A
Re joining a union —— a while back Unison said they were thinking of having sort of supporter members who are not necessarily working? Has anyone heard anything re this?
Sue
21 September 2011 at 17:22 |
Last month and again this week Miliband stated on Labourlist, that the problems with labour are well known, soft on Immigration, not doing enough on welfare reforms and not doing it fast enough.
My MP who is labour believes to many people are getting away with claiming benefits when in fact they could work, she is not saying people are cheating, just that people can work and should work, or get the correct benefit, meaning JSA.
Labour is re Founding right now sadly again they have stated welfare must go further, it’s difficult to see how much furter it could go except concentration camps.
21 September 2011 at 20:08 |
I sent this to Miliband, just hope someone reads it
Dear Mr Miliband
‘The 10 million disabled people in this country plus their carers, relatives and friends are watching what your party do in relation to disability issues and wondering why you seem disinterested in trying to get their votes by opposing the savage attacks against disabled people being made by the Coalition government. During conference season we wish to remind you, the architects of Employment and Support Allowance to ‘never fall ill, never grow old, never become disabled, never become a carer’, for if you do, as we have found, not even Labour will speak up for you.
As a former member and supporter of Labour I find it particularly painful to see labour MPs queueing up to label disabled and helpless people, as workshy and shiftless.
I find it incredible that one of the architects of this policy, Lord McKenzie was someone I worked to try to get elected to parliament during the 1980s.
If all parties in Parliament had not been so keen over the past 30 years to put forward tax cutting and freezing NI contributions policies, a relatively small rise in NI contributions would have made all benefits affordable.
It is NOT our fault Mr miliband, but yours , the political class who have got us to the stage where payments under NI ar seen as handouts not benefits of an insurance policy set up because the private sector failed so often.
Yours
Peter Horne
22 September 2011 at 09:58 |
getting automated email returns saying MPs only deal with matters sent in by own constituents
22 September 2011 at 10:07 |
I think this Labour party should stand up and get all these benefit refoms stopped.People are struggling and getting woried about their lives.We have a strong voice and can make things worse for Labour if things do not get stopped .IT is time mr Milliband got his priorities sorted and started to use his voice to show he is not going to let the electorate who are struggling on D.L.A get their money stopped also people who are terminally ill it is disgusting.We don’t have an expenses trough we can get our snouts in like government of which many should have been jailed like they would have had done to joe public.
22 September 2011 at 10:18 |
10 million disabled plus their carers, family and friends? Is that figure correct? That’s 30 – 50 million people.
22 September 2011 at 13:18 |
copy of email sent to my MP
***************************************************
Dear ******* ***********
It has been brought to my attention that the Labour Party is actively supporting the Welfare Reform Bill currently passing through Parliamentary process. This cruel and unfair bill will condemn millions of sick and disabled people to a life of poverty.
This will have the further effect of shortening their lives considerably as their standard of living and care plummets to below poverty level.
I feel I must urgently remind you that the sick and disabled population of Great Britain still have the right to vote and will not support any Political party who is in favour of making their lives worse than it already is. There are around 10 million people who are sick and disabled, many of whom have fallen foul of the old
PCA started by the Labour Party and the new hurriedly rolled out WCA by the current Tory led Government.
Many disabled people have taken their own lives after coming into contact with ATOS healthcare, a private French company who have been given carte-blanche by the Labour Party and now this unelected sham of a Tory led Government to forcibly remove 1
million from sickness and disability benefits in onto Employment Support Allowance.
This target driven, profit orientated, private company employ alleged Healthcare Professionals to meet their targets. These alleged HCP’s can be anything from a newly qualified Auxiliary Nurse to a retired Doctor who has had their right to practice removed. Many of the HCP’s are newly qualified foreign Doctors who have little or no English and yet are allowed to work for this devilish company.
As a lifelong socialist and supporter of the Labour Party I find this most difficult of all to say. I will be thinking very carefully where I place my vote at the next Local and General Elections and it will not be with the Labour Party until they reconsider and alter their position on the Welfare Rights Bill
Thank you
22 September 2011 at 15:58 |
Unfortunately I’m getting the same success rate as Bridget Price.
I sent seventeen e-mails, so far only seven Out of Office responses and one actual e-mail saying you’re not a constituent, contact your own MP (who is one one of the seven out of office). We can only hope the secretaries actually tell the MPs what feedback they are getting. Keep up the pressure and it will get through to them.
22 September 2011 at 19:37 |
I received this today, I wonder should we now be contacting the Lords?
Thank you for taking the trouble to contact me on this important matter.
We voted against the Welfare Reform Bill at third reading in the House of Commons. One of the reasons was that it failed the compassion test – especially in the provisions for disabled people. The introduction of the Universal Credit will see support for disabled children halved, while the Severe Disability Premium is to be scrapped with nothing appropriate put in its place.
Before opposing the Bill at third reading, we fought hard to amend it. We tabled the following amendments to the provisions for the Personal Independence Payment:
· Scrap plans to abolish the mobility component of Disability Living Allowance for people in residential care homes who use this support to visit friends and family. This will affect around 80,000 people and could leave many with as little as £22 a week on which to live on.
· Retain automatic eligibility for disability benefits for people who have severe impairments
· Ensure that disabled people only have to wait 3 months before they can apply for the Personal Independence Payment, rather than the 6 months the Government proposes.
· Report and consult on the new assessment for PIP to ensure that the assessment is working properly and help is going to those disabled people that need it.
We introduced Employment and Support Allowance in 2008 because we did not believe that it was right for people to be left on Incapacity Benefit without any assistance to return to work, if they are able to do so. That was the right thing to do then, and we support it – although we recognise that there need to be changes to the Work Capability Assessment to make it fit for purpose, and support Professor Harrington’s review.
The Conservatives’ plan to limit contributory ESA (cESA) to one year, based on no evidence at all about how long it takes people to return to work, is just wrong. At committee stage in the House of Commons we moved amendments to:
· Extend the limit to at least two years
· Stop the Government from cutting the benefit for young disabled people
· Stop the cut from hitting immediately in April 2012
· Protect people who fluctuate between the Work Related Activity and Support groups
We moved amendments to debate these matters at Report Stage, too, but the Government cut short the debate and stopped them from being discussed.
Unfortunately, at every stage, both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats voted against our amendments. The Welfare Reform Bill has now transferred to the Lords. I hope that sense will prevail there, that we will see our reasonable changes to PIP incorporated, and that the one year time limit for cESA will be scrapped. The bill remains, however, deeply flawed.
Yours
Margaret Curran MP
22 September 2011 at 19:48 |
Emails sent. But can I just add something? You need to include your name and full address with postcode or the “Out of Office reply” tells you :
“Parliamentary protocol dictates that Members of Parliament can only deal with issues on behalf of their own constituents. So please include in your correspondence your name and postal address. If this was not included in your email, please re-send your previous email with your postal address and full name included.”
I didn’t have the heart to go through it all again, so hopefully this will save someone wasted effort.
23 September 2011 at 17:57 |
I received a reply today from Ed Miliband word for word the same as the one Vanessa got from Margaret Curran do MPs today not have the capacity for independent thought ? I expect this from Tories and lib dems but not from Labour. See I live in the past a bit.
Peter