Activists consider legal action after DWP cancels only face-to-face benefit cuts consultation event in Wales

Disabled activists are considering taking legal action against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after it scrapped the only event due to take place in Wales as part of the consultation on its disability benefits green paper.

They say MPs should not be allowed to vote on the government’s plans – with a bill due to be published within days – until there has been a “full and genuine” public consultation.

They spoke out after DWP cancelled a consultation event on the Pathways to Work green paper just days before it was due to take place at a hotel in north Cardiff on Tuesday.

Disability News Service (DNS) has seen an email sent by DWP which blamed “an unexpected last minute cancellation by the venue”.

But the email also offered those who had been due to attend “a priority space on our other virtual events in place of this cancelled event”, or a place at “a new Wales-only online event for the end of June on the entire consultation”.

It would have been the only face-to-face consultation event on the green paper in the whole of Wales, although disabled activists had already complained about the inaccessible location of the hotel venue in north Cardiff.

They are now considering “all options”, including legal action, due to the discriminatory way the consultation event had been organised, and the failure to carry out a genuine consultation process in Wales.

Disabled People Against Cuts Cymru (DPAC Cymru) went ahead with a planned protest on Tuesday (pictured) – outside Cardiff Central rail station – even though the consultation event had been cancelled.

DPAC Cymru said: “We are not surprised that private venues do not want to be seen hosting a toxic consultation on proposals to take more than £5 billion away from disabled people.”

DPAC Cymru said it was now possible that MPs could be voting on many of the proposals in the green paper by the time the replacement event had taken place.

It called for a “full and genuine public consultation in Wales” that is run by Welsh disabled people’s organisations with DWP attending only as observers, and called for supporters to sign an open letter backing their demands.

Among those who have signed the open letter, and attended Tuesday’s protest, was Plaid Cymru MS Sioned Williams, who raised the concerns in the Senedd later the same day.

DPAC Cymru is still calling for Swansea West MP Torsten Bell – a work and pensions minister – to debate the green paper publicly with DPAC.

Disability Wales said it was “aghast” at DWP’s decision to cancel the only in-person consultation event in Wales.

It said: “The decision silences disabled people across Wales – those who would be most affected by these devastating changes.

“An online alternative is no substitute for meaningful, accessible, face-to-face engagement.

“Cancelling the in-person meeting effectively cancels our right to be heard and erases lived experience from the conversation.”

DWP had refused by noon today (Thursday) to confirm if there would be a replacement face-to-face consultation event in Wales before the consultation finishes at the end of this month.

Instead, a spokesperson said in a statement: “We will never compromise on protecting people who need our support, and our reforms will mean the social security system will always be there for those who will never be able to work, and that their income is protected.

“We are working to rearrange the event in Wales as part of a series of face to face and virtual consultations, so the views and voices of sick and disabled people are at the heart of our reforms.”

It is just the latest setback for DWP since it launched the consultation on the green paper, including disabled activists gate-crashing a “sham” consultation event in Manchester and persuading civil servants to let them put questions that ministers had not wanted to be asked.

The DWP consultation process is only seeking views on 10 of the 22 controversial proposals in the green paper, including ducking questions on Labour’s plans to cut billions of pounds from spending on personal independence payment (PIP) and the health element of universal credit.

In April, leading disabled people’s organisations wrote to work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall to express “serious concerns” about the human rights implications of her “incredibly dangerous” plans to cut spending on disability benefits.

Last week, Disability News Service reported how disabled activists had been left shocked after Sir Stephen Timms, the social security and disability minister, was accused of walking past and ignoring a disabled woman who had collapsed on the floor at the end of a small consultation meeting with a charity.

Meanwhile, a group of disabled actors and artists who will be directly affected by the cuts will be leading a protest outside Tate Modern art gallery in London on Tuesday (10 June) at 2pm.

The protest will include a “die-in” – with activists invited to lie on the ground in a symbolic gesture “to remember all those who have died because of cuts and all those who might die if more cuts go ahead” – followed by a minute’s silence.

A disabled actor will then read out statements submitted by disabled people from across the UK, highlighting the consequences of these policies, followed by contributions from other protesters who wish to speak.

A spokesperson for Fight4Life, the new campaign group organising the action, said: “We hate the fear and despair the announcement of these cuts has caused disabled people, their carers and loved ones by our so-called Labour government.

“If they go ahead, it will be at the cost of many lives. We are determined to fight back.

“So we’re asking disabled people and our allies to stand up against these cuts by lying down at a public ‘Die In’ to symbolise the lives that will be lost if the cuts go ahead.”

Fight4Life is encouraging supporters to attend the protest.

To contribute a statement or for details on how to take part, including organising your own #Fight4Life event or contributing from your home, visit the Fight4Life website.

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