The Broken of Britain is delighted to announce that an Early Day Motion (EDM) has been tabled in the House of Commons on the DLA reform consultation. EDM 1332 was tabled at our request by Hywel Williams MP (Arfon), who has a record of disability rights activism. The EDM reads as follows:
DISABILITY LIVING ALLOWANCE CONSULTATION
24.01.2011
Williams, Hywel
That this House expresses concern at the presentation of the case for reform of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in the public consultation published on 6 December 2010; believes that the consultation incorrectly confuses correlation with causation between DLA claimants and employment levels or motivation to work; notes that DLA claimants tend to be older, less well-qualified, on benefits for longer and in poorer health than other disabled people; is of the opinion that many of the claims made in support of changing DLA are unsubstantiated in the consultation text or the supporting evidence; does not accept the argument that the identified problems with the present format of DLA are insoluble without the introduction of a costly new benefit; further believes that the presentation of the case for these reforms is highly flawed; and further expresses concern that the language used in the consultation may mislead readers when drawing conclusions from the evidence presented, and may therefore influence their response to the consultation.
Early Day Motion (EDM) is a colloquial term for a notice of motion given by a Member for which no date has been fixed for debate. EDMs exist to allow Members to put on record their opinion on a subject and canvass support for it from fellow Members. In effect, the primary function of an EDM is to form a kind of petition that MPs can sign.
This particular EDM must be signed by as many MPs as possible to get press attention. The Broken of Britain asks that you write to your MP urgin them to sign EDM 1332. A brief e-mail should suffice in this case:
Dear Member of Parliament,
Please sign EDM 1332: Disability Living Allowance Consultation, drawing attention to the flaws in the case for DLA reform published by the Department for Work and Pensions on the 6th of December, 2010, and expressing the House's concern that these flaws may influence the Public Consultation on the matter which closes on the 14th of February, 2011. DLA reform may well lead to real hardship and poverty for many disabled people, and it is important that you oppose any changes that may lead to such outcomes.
Yours sincerely,
Non-partisan UK-based Disability campaign. Advocacy for people with invisible illness and/or physical & mental health conditions. Also Carers, their Families and Friends. Our individual voices are too quiet to be heard, but collectively we can shout loud enough to drown out this tide of abuse against us. Disability Hate Crime, lack of full legal protection, people in care homes costing too much to be let out and not one political party willing to fight for us.
Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteGiven that some MPs whom we could expect to be sympathetic to this (mainly Labour Shadow Cabinet members and Shadow Ministers) are not allowed, under House of Commons rules, to sign EDMs, perhaps it would be worth adding a paragraph to the bottom of the email along the lines of "If you are unable to sign the Early Day Motion, perhaps you would make representations on my behalf to the Minsiter for Disabled People and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions".
ReplyDeleteFantastic, now let's get to work getting our MPs to sign it.
ReplyDeleteFendawg, I'll leave the last bit to your discretion. There are no rules about who can and who can't though, just convention. If Yvette Cooper, or another Shadow Cabinet member, wanted to sign it, they could.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant news!
ReplyDeleteAs many people as possible now need to contact their MPs and urge them to sign the motion.
Well done!
Done ...
ReplyDeleteYour http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/ link is great. I have just used WriteToThem to email my MP, even easier than finding his website details through your link. Between WriteToThem and you, it's lovely and easy.
ReplyDeleteWell done! Have written to my MP!
ReplyDeleteI came here to read the EDM so I could write to my MP about it, only to find that my MP is the one who tabled it. I am suddenly filled with love and affection for Hywel Williams MP, and shall be paying more attention to what he gets up to in future.
ReplyDeleteMY MP wont sign it - Just says if you are truly disabld then you have nothing to worry about have you. This Govt are evil!
ReplyDeleteAnon 07:33
ReplyDeleteDon't worry - we'll try and get some supportive ones. :-)
Then highlight MP's who are unsupportive of disabled people, let's ID those against us. We can then lobby locally against their representations.
ReplyDeleteMP Paul Flynn has signified support and signed, go PAul !
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for drawing my attention to this. I have written to my MP Chris Huhne about this, and asked for his support.
ReplyDeleteI wrote to my MP, Austin Mitchell. He replied and said he has signed it.
ReplyDeleteDen said,
ReplyDeleteI wrote to my local MP, David Evennett, Member of Parliament for Bexleyheath and Crayford, regarding the possibility that he might put his support behind EDM 1332:
Although he replied politely to my email and mentioned that he'd asked Maria Miller, Minister for Disabled People if she could confirm that she would take the circumstances of people relying on DLA into consideration, her response was that she wishes to ensure that the system be modernised, and in her words to, “ensure that the system works for today, not for 18 years ago, when it was first put in place.”
Mr Evenett stated that he cannot put his name to EDM 1332, being a Parliamentary Private Secretary, so I feel somewhat stymied in my attempts to affect any change in this matter - unless any of you have any suggestions.
I emailed Amelia Gentleman, a journalist who writes on social affairs for the Guardian stating the steps myself and people such as yourselves are taking to stop this vile legislation becoming a reality, but I fear that this heartless legislation will be rail-roaded through parliament by those who seem compelled to further impoverish people in an already untenable position.
Sorry if this comes across as very negative, but at the moment I'm out of ideas.
If the government forced their big business "friends" to pay the billions on tax they have been avoiding, no benefits would need to be cut at all.
ReplyDeleteThese scum sicken me.