My Response To "Move Needed" Column By Louise Allonby

Link  to Louise Allonby's column: http://www.nwemail.co.uk/home/2.4887/move-needed-1.954589?referrerPath=home/love_going_out

Dear Ms. Allonby,

 

I am a 55 year old Disability Studies specialist from Montreal, Canada—and have been reporting to the United Nations on the plight of the sick and disabled in the U.K. due to the austerity measures and the welfare reforms which you praise in your column. 

 

No one disputes the need for welfare reform or the benefit of gainful employment for sick and disabled people. But reforms need to be properly devised, and sadly this is not the case here. In fact, the reforms are doing a great deal of harm.

 

 

There is no mention in your article of the NOT fit-for-purpose Work Capability Assessments as performed by Atos Healthcare.  Are you not aware of the recent resignation of Paul Farmer, CEO of the mental health  charity Mind, from the WCA oversight panel?  Here is his resignation letter (http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/04/02/mind-chief-executive-paul-farmers-resignation-statement-dwpwca-review-panel/); I suggest that you read it and gain some insight.

 

Furthermore, the British Medication Association will be voting on motions later this month which call for an end to the Atos assessments: (See:  http://www.twitlonger.com/show/hd9g57)

 

Another objection is your failure to even mention the suicides of sick and disabled people that Sonia Poulton of the Daily Mail has brought to the attention of that newspaper's readers.  For the purpose of brevity, see my letter to Minister Chris Grayling (http://www.twitlonger.com/show/h25ir6) and my blog piece (http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.ca/2012/04/open-letter-to-sick-and-disabled-people.html)

 

Other recent articles that I would like you to bring to your attention include: http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/05/16/number-of-disabled-people-losing-benefits-may-top-one-million/ and http://blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/05/16/fury-as-blind-people-hit-by-benefit-reform-the-independent/

 

In closing, I invite you to e-mail me at disabilityinliterature@gmail.com to discuss this matter further.

 

--
Samuel Miller
E-Mail: disabilityinliterature@gmail.com
Blog: Hephaestus: Disability Studies
http://illnessandcivilization.blogspot.com/
Blog: My Disability Studies Blackboard
http://mydisabilitystudiesblackboard.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Hephaestus7
(Montreal, Canada)

 

P.S.  My followers on Twitters seem to like my tweet:

 

London Paralympic Games to be cancelled after Atos Healthcare's disability descriptors define participating athletes as "able-bodied."