DWP reform - where we are now (on 8/3/25) & possible steps once gov makes official announcement
Comments
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Also this applies if people are disabled and are in work and their employers are giving them problems because they take advantage of the person 's disability and breaking disability and employment laws.
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I’ve read a lot of comments on both the scope forum and social media of people wishing that disability charities and organisations would interact with each other more and come up with some sort of joint action (rather than just words)
I agree with this however as I mentioned in an earlier post, at its core scope is a help and advice charity who favours diplomacy (where you need to be in minister ‘good books’ so they’ll continue lines of communication) - legal action is probably ‘higher reward’ but a charity like scope would burn bridges if they took that path
disability activists organisations such as dpac and black triangle are better placed and have more experience and knowledge on taking legal action - however I’m not sure they have the audience to pull off a class action lawsuit or similar (I’m thinking along the lines of Alan Bates and Others v Post Office Ltd case - it’s time the disabled as a community take action in combined number) and as I said the scope forum has probably one of the largest amounts of members of a disability ‘forum’
So yes I’m very much team ‘we got to start talking to each and discuss cooperative forms of action.
I do have an idea of how this could be achieved but it will certain be a mountain to climb, certainly not a one man band type thing (a job shared is a job halved type thing), I’d need to run it by the mods if it’s even okay to post on the forum in the way intend and even after all that there’s a good chance most members would be disinterestedI’m reading more and more people want to be proactive but that they also want others to do the bulk of the legwork
(As much as I think it’s time I put my money where my mouth is - there’s an ridiculous amount going on with my personal life, other goals on my to do list (plus the winter flu & cough has been kicking my backside for the last 7wks) and honestly I’m worried about overload and burnout as that’s what I’ve done in the past taking on too much - if forum members are serious about being proactive (if the contents of the green paper leaves no other choice) then I’m happy to contribute all I can leaning into my strengths of research, data collection, numbers (powered by my ocd 😝), just don’t ask me to public speak (or write the speech) - if I’ve misread or overestimated members desire to be proactive if circumstances don’t go in our favour that’s cool too…………..I’ll just concentrate on getting myself to 2029 in one piece and hope all of you have a good support system and can get to the other side as well😉💖)2 -
Yes I'm clueless so I'd like to do something so I'm on board
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I’d like to be proactive but public speaking is out for me too. I can write well though
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I have emailed John Mcdonald who's on our side, who will be speaking out against the cuts and opposing them
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I hope more MP's speak out against it but I won't hold my breath.
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actually I wouldn’t use the word clueless
Look you’ve been a scope member for less than a year (just looked it up and I’ve been a member for 7 years) and when you first started posting honestly I had you down as a ‘headless chicken on far too much caffeine’ 😂 (I first found it annoying but I got to know you a little and I think your head goes at a million miles and you have trouble slowing it down - the times you do you’ve said some pretty thoughtful things)
very few people are 100% clueless, they just have their specialist areas
You are referring to the workings of government and things like legislation and changing laws as the area you are clueless in - look I’ve done a lot of reading up on gov docs and trying to educate myself on politics and it’s blooming hard to understand (half the time I don’t think the docs are written in English, it’s a whole unique lingo
A few members think they understand politics & laws (when actually they’ve misunderstood things and are stubborn to correction) - I think only a handful of members have educated of self taught themselves in this area well (poppy and kimmy come to mind) but thousands of scope forum members and I don’t think we’ve had one member who official studied and/or worked in politics or law (please correct me if wrong) and no one’s shared if they have family, friends or family friends or even a friend of a friend with experience in politics or legal job areas
Everyone on this forum has their strengths and ways they can best contribute if they do want to be proactive and if a group of ppl work together skills can be utilised and loads shared so no one gets overwhelmed
for example someone mentioned that they were comfortable composing emails/letters - that’s a hugely useful skillThere are those that are good at research (and have the ability to translate in layman’s terms for the rest of us) - hugely useful
There may be members who can’t write but are good at presentation and design - I can think of uses for that here
There may be those that has a good grasp of IT, the web and/or things like site building and social media - (can I get that member on private message speed dial?!……………..translation: useful)
Gathering of stats and figures - you know where I’m going with this
And prehaps not now but there could be members willing to put themselves out there and talk to people in person such as a legal case, in person protests, mp’s surgeries etc…….. - once again hugely helpful
so @Catherine21 you may be still wondering what your strengths areIt’s pretty obvious to me - you’ve been a member for less than nine months and have almost posted 4K posts
That suggests you may be a very quick typer but also a bit of a workhorse (I mean it looks like you’d have the stamina to manage & run both trump and musk’s Twitter feed 🤣) and have the potential for your posts to be seen by one of the largest amounts of members
…..and that is something that can be powerfully utilised if the right support is provided imo
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Hhhh yes well it's the help of you guys really taught me so much for that I'm grateful I came on here like bull in a China shop your right my mind never stops I write from the mind just straight what !!! 4k me no way !!! Wow I use this like a diary I'd rather take on trump might get some styling tips on foundation and hair dye god you have to laugh xx
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Going back to what we (the disability community) can do once the disability green paper confirms labours preferred plans:
Things that could have an impact on the details of any welfare reform during this ‘time gap’ can include but not be solely exclusive of:mp/backbencher rebellion on policy (esp embarrassing for gov if ministers speak outLarge scale public backlashPublic protests/campaigns against prospective policy (media/disability charities & organisations/mp backing can make or break this strategy)Legal challenges/class action suits against dwp security of state/government (most likely from human rights groups or disability activist organisations) - I’ll talk about this more in a future post (I’m not sure that tribunals/upper tribunals can come into play before a policy is implemented)
my week got a little busy - I’m out for most of the day Wednesday or Thursday (so I may not be able to go through and highlight the green paper doc as quickly as I like if it launches as rumoured on Wednesday)My plan was to write in depth summary posts of each of the bullet points above but I’m going to have to try and master the act of the small compact post 😅
Very interesting developments today (some unusual and unprecedented moves) - didn’t realise how vital welfare reforms were to this labour gov………may of been a mistake of the gov to show their hand this early. Very interesting the theory that the itv ‘leak’ may have been from a gov source who didn’t agree with the direction reforms were going. The guardian mentioned this morning the gov & starmer having a busy week but didn’t mention green paper launch on the schedule (wonder if the Wednesday rumors are true the gov was forced to bring the launch forward - fury in the disabled community online is gathering pace fast and starting to ask some uncomfortable questions - I imagine that could be something the gov wants to stop before a storm turns to a tornado before an official announcement)
I think politicians have underestimated the disabled community and don’t rate us as smart enough to figure out a way to effectively oppose and slow/stop their plans if required - some of the smartest ppl in history had a disability or health condition (he’s using his powers for evil - but one of the richest most powerful person in the world right now is Elon musk who is on the higher functioning end of the autistic spectrum (don’t like the original name of disability - named after a nazi murderer it turned out)) - the amount of times I’ve mentioned to someone that I’m autistic and they ask if that means I’m retarded (a dirty word in my book even when used correctly) and expect ppl like me too be done. Many disabled ppl are like super computers (that keep crashing from overheating as no built in fan)
The disabled community has never truly pushed back ( the survivor tagline of ‘outwit, outplay. outlast’ pops into my head) and stood up to the gov in the past 15-20 years - with current various legislations currently going through Parliament and expected upcoming ones I can’t think of a better time to make a stand and show politicans we aren’t easy targets and are a social group they should want to keep on side
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mp/backbencher rebellion on policy (esp embarrassing for gov if ministers speak outso even though there’s rumors that up to 80 labour mps could rebel, there was also the unusual development of 35 labour mps forming a group supportive of the gov welfare reform plan (before seeing the details of said plan) and starmer is meeting with multiple small groups of mps over this and offering non paid long job titles to backbenchers to keep them occupied and distracted (I’d bet huge coin that 3 line whip will be implemented and loss of the labour whip for those with one toe out of line has already been threatened.
Bottom line is that we are only 9 months of a 5 year term and most backbenchers won’t have the bottle to rebel
There will be a small number that just won’t care and stand by their personal morals - but the majority of labour mps will do one of two things:
- quote lines from the labour higher ups hymn book
- Stay silent/avoid the topic
In terms of mps from other parties
- reform are best ignored
- Greens and snp look like they are already on our side publicly so apart from messages of thanks & gratitude they aren’t a priority to contact
- Lib Dem’s are the 3rd largest party (so media has interest in their quotes) and their leader has been a career for both his parents and son - I know many say they will never forgive Lib Dem’s for part in coalition but the fact is we need as many mp allies as possible and our community just don’t have the luxury to uphold a grudge from a decade back - bottom line is we need the Lib Dem mps to publically support the disabled community and challenge anything that makes our lives difficult
- The tories is a weird situation - on the one hand most of us probably want nothing to do with them, on the other hand the enemy of my enemy is my ‘friend’ - I don’t know if Tory’s will be happy to back labours plan or want it to fail as it’s not their plan - depending on position we could resist the nausea and find common ground (for example the original definition of a benefit scrounger was for a jobseeker to do the bare minimum to collect their jsa/uc, housing and other checks - if the itv leaks are accurate it sound like labour want to take money from the country’s most vulnerable (lcwra group with little proven fraud) and add some of that money to the OG scrounger welfare check?! - even some tories may viewed that as f***ed up)
it’s fantastic so many of you are already writing to your mp but I think we need to think smarter, divide and conquer and expand the target group to send letters/emails to:- if you are comfortable with it try and get in to your mp’s local in person surgery
- Consider contacting labour unions (they still hold a lot of cards), labour donors (go where the power is - parties get in power via having the most voters) and even uk politically vocal celebs on social media (good way to get more exposure)
- Those members good at writing could upload/share draft templates of letters/emails they’ve compiled on reforms once announced officially in green paper onto the forum or via pm (editable doc like word) to help those who get overwhelmed writing but want to do their part via sending emails, etc…..
- At the end we don’t need a labour mp to respond to our emails (as they’ll be required to stick to party line or just not answer) - we need them to take on board our concerns and have conversations with other mps behind the scenes - they need to decide if and when they are brave enough to do the right thing and speak out (at cost in form of standing in Labour Party) - some mps won’t budge and unless they are a prominent figure in party probably best to move on - those labours who don’t comment on nor praise policies in the disability green paper are still fair gain
- I’m of two minds whether to appeal to an mp with a disability or who has had/still has disabled family members - you’d hope you’d have a chance to get them onside because of personal circumstance but I’m not sure it’s ethically right to highlight personal family info of that light
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so with the above in mind I had an idea to create a spreadsheet (image posted below of a 1st draft started - headings probably need to be renamed - any input and suggestions appreciated) of every mp’s position of the disability green paper proposed welfare reforms, initially to be a resource in identifying which mps may be worth contacting and what tone best to take when writing to term
As I said all feedback appreciated and it would be useful to know if this would be a helpful resource to a decent number of members
as I said needs some work but gives the basic gist
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Just heard a mp on BBC saying that it's young people not in anything that they want to change. Those who want to work will be given support,
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This is an excellent idea. I wrote to my MP on Sunday so will be able to gauge whether he’s supportive or not when he replies. He’s a new MP this time round so I’m uncertain of his thoughts as yet
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I’ve just emailed my MP explaining my health conditions and the detrimental effect the cuts/face to face assessments etc will have on me so I’ll see if and what he replies with.
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Good Afternoon,
I am new to the Scope site, but the more I read into the more horror I feel on the direction the government are taking. It feels like a witch-hunt against us all. What is meant to be a protected group isn't! I think the green paper will make for some very interesting reading.
I would like to help in this in any way I can. I am good at researching documents and pulling out the important points, and happy to write and compose emails. As many people as we can pull in the better, we have to stand up on this one!
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I thought this thread had been deleted!
I put forward this suggestion elsewhere:
Yes. We need to lobby Members of both Houses of parliament but there’s soft power out there too and we need to get those people on side.
Some time ago, there was a thread on the neuro-diversity forum to do with autism and churches. It has been closed. However, it highlighted than many Scope members have a religious faith.
The current government’s proposals are well beyond the teaching of Christianity and Judaism. In Psalm 140, you’ll find the words, “I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.” Proverbs 31 instructs us: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” These texts are common to Christianity and Judaism. I’m sure similar could be found in the teaching of Islam and other faiths.
It’s time we heard more not just from politicians but from faith leaders. I’m urging Scope users to contact every diocesan bishop and assistant/suffrage bishop in the country. Twenty-six Anglican diocesan bishops sit in the House of Lords. Jewish and Islamic faith leaders are also represented.
I’m urging Scope users to contact, say, three faith leaders or as many as they can manage.
Thank you, Zipz
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Hi and a very warm welcome to the community.
Scope have asked us all to keep posts about benefit reforms in one place.
The thread is at the top of the page.
Its called Upcoming changes to benefits.
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@apple85 you wanted a DM update of my case, but I think its not possible on your account. I wont be posting anything legally related on my thread as I agree with you scope probably wont want it, although I will still post an update there if my UC gets reinstated.
Nice work on the spreadsheet, I will be contacting MPs who are sympathetic.
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What is needed is a state of affairs in which the government does not benefit from discrimination against people with disabilities. The name of the party and the name of the prime minister are not important.
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Thanks apple what do we do
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