Ever since the days of Jo Moore who infamously emailed on the day of 9/11 that “today is a good day to bury bad news”, governments thereafter have tended to follow her advice. Hence on the day when Prince George’s arrival was announced to the world, the government cunningly buried the bad news (for them) […]
Posts Tagged ‘Disability’
Atos: Minister finally agrees to meeting
Jul 20th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.It’s taken long enough, like 6 months, to coax the Minister responsible for Atos under IDS, Mark Hoban, finally to come round to receiving a delegation from those with deep and lengthy experience of Atos/DWP procedures over WCA. But it look as though he is now prepared to see us soon after Parliament returns on […]
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ATOS and government treatment of disabled people
Jul 12th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Research published in March by the think-tank Demos and by the disability charity Scope, which my hon. Friend Mr Bain mentioned earlier, revealed that by 2017-18, 3.7 million disabled people will collectively lose £28 billion as a result of the Government’s cumulative benefit changes. If Scope and Demos can do a cumulative impact assessment, why cannot the […]
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What did disabled people do to deserve this?
Mar 28th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The scale of what is about to hit the disabled is without precedent since the 1930s, and to rub salt in the wound they will be hammered on the same day that 14,000 millionaires in Britain get a tax break worth an average £2,000 a week to each of them (a rise in their income […]
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Up your bedroom tax, Duncan Smith!
Mar 13th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.So public and political pressure does work, even against this government. You can always tell when a Minister’s in trouble – they get irritable and tetchy, as Duncan Smith has been over the last several days. Just 3 weeks before the hated bedroom tax comes into force, he has been forced to make some concessions. […]
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My speech on ATOS Work Capability Assessments
Jan 17th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.I beg to move that this House has considered the matter of Atos work capability assessments. I warmly thank the Backbench Business Committee for enabling me and cross-party colleagues to introduce this debate on Atos work capability assessments. There is enormous concern about the issue both in the country and in this House, as witnessed […]
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Atos debate in the House now fixed for Thursday 17 January
Jan 10th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.I am very pleased to announce that the elected Back-Bench Business Committe in the Commons has now arranged for a full 3-hour debate on Atos work capability assessments to take place in the main chamber (not in Westminster Hall where there has already previously been a debate on Atos) on Thursday 17 January starting shortly […]
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More horror stories from Atos
Oct 29th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.I have now received several more letters from around the country which illustrate the ruthlessness with which Atos Healthcare is dismissing all the medical evidence as ‘irrelevant’ and then cavalierly awarding people with patently serious disabilities 0 points.
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The speech of a “benefit scrounger”
Oct 21st, 2012 by Newsdesk.Sue Marsh who blogs at Diary of a Benefit Scrounger, and co-wrote the Spartacus report on the abolition of the Disability Living Allowance, made the following great speech at the TUC demonstration in Hyde Park yesterday.
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The Atos nightmare gets worse
Oct 15th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.As a result of my taking up the case of my constituent Colin Trayner in a House of Commons adjournment debate, who was an epileptic since birth subject to grand mal seizures and who at the age of 29 was declared fit for work but died in a grand mal fit before his appeal could be heard, […]
