Stop this onslaught of attacks, say disabled people in letter to PM

The prime minister has been asked to explain his government’s “onslaught” on disability rights, in a letter signed by more than 25 disabled people’s organisations and allies.

They have accused Rishi Sunak of trying to “scare people into good health” and forcing disabled people into inaccessible jobs.

And they say Sunak was guilty of issuing “harmful misinformation” when he tried to justify a new round of social security cuts and reforms.

They stress in the letter how successive Conservative governments have now had more than seven years to address serious breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, since a UN committee found the government guilty of “grave and systematic” violations of the treaty.

Last month, the UN committee on the rights of disabled people concluded that the UK government had made “no significant progress” since the finding in late 2016.

The committee even found “signs of regression” – backward steps – in the UK’s progress towards fully realising the rights described in the convention.

The committee said the government’s social security reforms were based on the idea that “disabled people are undeserving and wilfully avoiding employment” and are “defrauding the system”, which has led to “hate speech and hostility towards disabled people”.

This week’s letter says that Sunak, when announcing his attack on “sicknote culture” last month, claimed social security had become a lifestyle choice, which the letter says was “harmful misinformation”.

The letter has been sent to 10 Downing Street by Disability Rights UK (DR UK), and co-signed by disabled people’s organisations including Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living, Inclusion London, and West of England Centre for Inclusive Living.

It says that last week’s Modernising Support for Independent Living green paper – which revealed proposals for cuts and reforms to personal independence payment – “undermines the very principle of an extra cost benefit” for disabled people.

The letter adds: “You cannot scare people into good health, and you cannot force people into inaccessible jobs.”

And it points to the UN committee’s concerns over inadequate support for disabled refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as highlighting the more than six million people who are on NHS waiting-lists for treatment in England, chronic underfunding of the NHS, proposals to enable the segregation of trans people in the NHS, inadequate housing and the cost-of-living crisis.

It also criticises the government’s consistent failure to “closely consult and actively involve” disabled people and their organisations in drawing up policies that affect their lives.

The letter calls on Sunak and his government to “build a radical and transformative disability strategy” that addresses the violations of disabled people’s rights “and eliminates the root causes of inequality and discrimination”, and to build on a blueprint for such action laid out in The Disabled People’s Manifesto.

Kamran Mallick, DR UK’s chief executive, said: “Despite mountains of evidence pointing to disabled people being disproportionately poor, marginalised and starved of essential income, support and services, the government continues to fail to tackle deep-rooted inequalities and injustices.

“Instead, the government has introduced a string of proposals to create an even more hostile and punitive benefits process, failed to increase funding for public services such as social care and special educational needs, and produced a lacklustre Disability Action Plan.

“The letter asserts that it is government policies that are forcing people into poverty and ill health, and that this is where it should focus its effort, rather than attacking disabled people.”

The letter came as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) announced the first pilots of its WorkWell work and health support programme.

The voluntary scheme, first announced at last year’s spring budget as part of the government’s Back to Work Plan, will see 15 areas across England aim to connect about 60,000 people to local support services so they can secure “the tailored help they need to stay in or return to work”.

The service aims to provide advice on workplace adjustments, “facilitate conversations with employers”, and provide access to local services such as physiotherapy, employment advice and counselling.

Picture: Rishi Sunak (left) and Kamran Mallick

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