Crowdfunder’s final push could see book on ‘violent’ DWP sent to politicians across the country

Disabled activists are hoping a final push with their crowdfunding campaign will allow copies of a new book about the “violent” history of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to be sent to key politicians across the country.

By this morning (Thursday), the crowdfunder was just £500 short of its “stretched” fundraising goal of £7,000.

The original aim was to raise £3,500, enough money to send a copy of The Department to every Labour MP in the House of Commons.

But the campaign was so successful that the target was doubled, and the aim extended to MPs from other parties.

Now organisers of the campaign hope to raise enough to provide copies of the book to other leading politicians across the country, including some members of the legislative assembly in Northern Ireland (MLAs), Welsh assembly members, members of the Scottish parliament (MSPs) and other key figures such as elected mayors.

They also plan to use some of the funds to organise a campaign event in parliament on 2 September, the day MPs return from their summer break and the same day the books are due to be delivered to the House of Commons.

Among the organisations supporting the campaign are Disabled People Against Cuts, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP), Inclusion London, Recovery in the Bin and the radical working-class media organisation The Canary.

Rick Burgess, a GMCDP spokesperson, said: “While the DWP dictates policy from Westminster, the devastating and harmful effects are felt everywhere.

“It’s fantastic the crowdfunder has nearly reached its stretch goal.

“Hopefully this means books could also be sent to key leaders around the country, such as Andy Burnham and the other Metro mayors and key council leaders.

“Local and regional leaders can play a role in bringing this shameful era to an end.

“Mr Burnham’s support for the Hillsborough Law is important too.

“When passed, it will mean any public inquiry will put a duty of candour on public authorities and officials and provide legal representation for survivors and bereaved friends and family.”

Scottish disability rights campaigner Bill Scott, until recently a senior policy advisor for Inclusion Scotland, but speaking personally, said: “I think that all policy professionals working on disability and health-related issues and every MSP should read this harrowing account of how DWP policy-makers have fashioned policies that have taken hundreds, perhaps thousands, of disabled people’s lives.

“We have to ensure that both reserved and devolved benefits policy-makers not only stop punishing disabled people but instead secure their rights to an adequate income.

“I can’t recommend it more highly.”

The idea for the crowdfunder came from John McArdle, co-founder of the disabled people’s grassroots group Black Triangle, who is leading the project with fellow disabled activist and author Ellen Clifford, who leads the coalition of disabled people’s organisations monitoring the UK implementation of the UN’s disability rights convention.

Among other campaigners supporting the crowdfunder is Anne-Marie O’Sullivan, who has fought for justice for more than a decade for her father Michael, who took his own life in 2013 after being wrongly found fit for work.

In their letter to MPs, which will accompany the book, they will tell them: “It is certain that the new government will be announcing reforms to personal independence payment, benefit sanctions, universal credit and the work capability assessment in the coming months.

“All these areas of DWP policy have been strongly linked to tragic deaths of claimants over the last 15 years, and we believe this will continue to happen if the government does not take the necessary steps to build a new, safer culture within DWP.

“All we ask is that you read this book before deciding your position.”

McArdle said: “Politicians across the country need to know the devastating impact of austerity on disabled people, so they can use that information when making their own decisions on vital local services.

“Successive Conservative-led governments used austerity as a justification for cutting disabled people’s support.

“This book shows how they did that and how it led to countless deaths.

“Metro mayors, MSPs, MLAs and Welsh assembly members all need to concentrate on how they can make the UK a country fit for all to live in.

“This means, above all, tackling the grinding poverty which is shortening lives.

“These lessons must be learned locally and nationally.

“There is a better way to deal with the mess we’re in than to persevere with the failed policy of cuts and austerity which strangles our future wellbeing and has cost lives and caused misery to millions.

“It has failed and been shown to have failed, and disabled people have borne the brunt.”

The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, by DNS editor John Pring, will be published by Pluto Press on Tuesday (20 August).

It describes Pring’s 10-year investigation into how the actions of DWP, spurred on by politicians and the outsourcing industry, led to the deaths of hundreds, and probably thousands, of disabled people, and how they covered up their role in those deaths.

It includes new documents obtained from the National Archives that show how the violence inflicted on benefit claimants built slowly from the late 1980s until it exploded in the post-2010 austerity years.

It also tells the stories of some of those who lost their lives because of that bureaucratic violence, following years of dehumanisation and destitution, and the impact on their families and friends.

Clifford has described it as “an expertly crafted, vigorously researched response to the gas-lighting endured by disabled benefit claimants at the hands of government and the DWP for the past 14 years” and “a powerful call to arms for all decent human beings”.

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…