Get your MP to act against cuts
Comments
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Thanks for sharing @Dav1D
Strangely, My MP’s name is not on any list. Was there any group list that were“Neutral “?
Best Wishes!
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Sorry I couldn’t respond last night , @Grumpy1314-I nodded off due to the effects of my strong pain meds. I hope you managed to get some rest too.
Please do keep going with your efforts to push back against these devastating benefit cuts. Our kind fellow members in this thread have shared some incredibly helpful resources, including links to campaigns, petitions, and powerful MP letter templates. If you haven’t already, please do sign, share, and encourage others to join in.
We’re on a strong and united path to challenge these proposals and every action helps.
Best wishes and solidarity.0 -
My MP is voting for the cuts . Scum .
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Thank you @noonebelieves for what you've said about my posts and it's good to hear from you too. 😊
I'm glad that you're recovering, it's bound to take time. Good luck with your physio appointment and I hope it's a positive result from that check up. 🤞🍀
Thank you for your very kind words and concern about my seizure. It's great that my two favourite men 🧍🐶 are so concerned about me, I agree! 😁
Seriously though, it was very scary not being able to move to begin with, when I first had these seizures, years ago but it's not as scary now. However, I've never entirely got used to them, of course, especially the hard falls as I've had on this occasion.
Everything is done to mitigate the effect of these falls but there is only so much that can be done. However, to me it's truly not as frightening as it must sound to you. I've soon forgotten the experience but I think it's as much being accepting of the situation and getting on with life despite it, as much as anything else. Isn't it strange what you end up getting used to when you're disabled. 😳
As you said, doesn't the gentleman at A&E put your own disabilities into perspective. I think that the fact that he had such a serious accident towards the end of his life had something to do with it too. Also, I think that in the back of our minds, we both know how deverstating it will be for his elderly wife if he doesn't make it either. We are both a lot younger than they are. Again, I do hope that he is recovering well, despite what I've just said. 👌 Let's hope so. 🤞
I think that the government thought that they had a easy walk over with disabled people. So many people like, you me and Grumpy (I love his profile photo of Victor Meldrew! 😆) are proving them completely wrong.
Prejudiced, ableist, morally bankrupt politictions cannot even grasp that the courage, persistence and open mindedness that comes as a package with disabled people because of all we have to overcome, to fit into a society of mostly able bodied people sets us up to be in such a good position to deal with the likes of Starmer, Reeves and Kendall. 🤮
That is despite our disabilities too. Well, in the eyes of society anyway, one that doesn't do much to embrace our differences, which is all they really are.
Don't you find that those without our experience of disability are much more narrow minded and less open to reguarding others people's point of view as being important? I think so.
I don't want to go blowing our own trumpet too much 🎺🤭 but I believe it does give us a unique, all round perspective.
The government is appalling. Ruthless and inhumane too to make you and your children have to resort to eating stale bread on a regular basis when they wrongly stopped your money. How long must it have taken them to restore your benefits if you all ended up having to barely subsist like that!! 😮 That is truly shocking. 😞
Plus that is BEFORE these proposed chunks (they're too deep to be called a cutd) are due to be taken out of our incomes. The devastation it will cause doesn't even bear thinking about. 🫣
Terms like "lazy" and "taking the mickey" belong in the school playground. It's so immature. It shocks you to your core when you realise that it's not children, who don't know how to behave properly who are using these terms but supposedly adult ministers at the head of this countries government!! 😱
I don't think we can ever get our heads around how they think and view the world. How twisted can you be to be able to lecture genuinely disabled people on "morality" and "common sense" when they have neither of those qualities and never will have.
This is when they know that they are intentionally wrapping up such vicious proposals in a mirage of respectabiity to try to kid the people of this country to be on their side, knowing full well that they are making our lives a living hell and for what?
So they can ride the governmental gravy train for as long as they can then aquire plum jobs with pay scales that we couldn't even imagine!!
We have been dragged down to the level, (by successive governments in the 21st century) of the political ideology of Germany in the 1930's and 40's. We know what they did to other minorities too. 😢
I say that THEY DO want to erase us altogether and that the dark ages are already back.
It keeps coming back to me with a jolt, that this really is happening, like the nightmare you cannot wake from. As you've said, we have NO CHOICE but to fight back. Disabled people are fighting for their very lives and for that of loved ones and friends. To think that they thought that we wouldn't do much to oppose them. How could we not? 🤔
However difficult they are making it to challenge these proposals there are many different ways of campaigning and disabled people and DPO's really do have all the bases covered.
However many obstacles are put in the way, WE MUST do everything we can. We cannot know what goes on behind the scenes. They will keep a lot of things hidden, deliberately ignoring us, hoping we will think that is the case, when I actually think that they are taking far more notice of us, than we think. How do we know except they are doing that except by throwing everything at this? I think that will eventually reveal what they are trying so hard to keep hidden behind lies and weasal words, which will be for our advantage.
Thank you also for what you have said about the MPs letter template from Benefits and Work. I was delighted to find that you have used it yourself and you are recommending it to others!!🤗 I have also used it with my own additions.
I was frustrated by not having the correct structure that I needed in an email to my local MP, (a "Sir" blah blah who is certainly not going to ride in to rescue us) either in my own words or in a template for him as he's a Conservative. What can you do with a Tory under these circumstances! Benefits and Work had the answer.
They gave me the revalation that the only way to get his attention is to show him how unlawful his actions would be by agreeing to vote for these proposals, which apparently all the Tories are going to do. I put it in a very much politer and more subtle way than that, of course. 😉
The previous government had their own green paper proposals and the high court declared them unlawful for a number of reasons especially as the Tories made out that they would succeed in getting a lot of disabled people back to work when it was nothing of the sort. It was just a benefit cutting exercise which would only get just 3% of us back in the workplace! The Office for Budget Responsibility's own figures too. The Labour version is all the above except on steroids!!
You know how the saying goes I've no doubt, "You couldn't make it up" Its just mind boggling isn't it?
I do believe that we hold more power than we realise. But if we don't use that power, courage and determination we will never find out if having those values could have done us any good or not!! 👌
Thank you to you @noonebelieves, you are a real inspiration and a such a great support to me! 😃💪👏
Take care of yourself and I do promise to keep going, for as long as ever it takes!!
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Hey Juls,
Thank you again for your message. I always feel like we’re two mates sat in a pub after a long week, untangling the mess life throws at us with a bit of honesty and warmth. You’ve got a way of cutting through the noise and finding the real heart of things. It means more than I can say.👏
Physio’s been pushed back to the 11th, though oddly, I’m not too anxious about it. The shoulder’s slightly better when I don’t push too hard - but as you’ll know, it’s that dangerous “false plateau” that tricks you into thinking things are okay when they’re not. Still, small wins🏆. I really hope your seizures settle down soon. That unpredictability sounds terrifying, but your acceptance of it-not defeat, but real, hard-won resilience ….is something I truly admire. What you said stayed with me: we’ve become experts at enduring what would crush most others. There’s a certain strength in us disabled folk that gets overlooked far too easily.
That elderly gentleman I met in A&E really brought that home. Seven broken ribs and a fractured spine, yet he sat there like it was a sprained ankle. No fuss, no bitterness - just this quiet will to get better and return to his garden. 😬You’re right!At 86, that kind of injury can be a death sentence, yet he had more life in him than anyone else in the room. His wife’s strength too… I could also see how hard she was holding it all together. It stayed with me. I walked away thinking, if he can face that with such calm, maybe I can keep facing what I’ve got, too.I only wish to believe that he is recovering peacefully in his hospital bed, and that his wife is truly being supported -nothing more. Even if reality is different, that hope is what I choose to hold on to.❤️🩹
And coming back to the heart of what we’ve been discussing - this betrayal from Labour. Honestly, Juls, you’ve hit the nail right on the head with your views🤮. I’ve now added Stephen Timms to my personal list of so-called progressives who’ve drifted into Liebour’s territory. That BBC podcast interview of his (@Yogibear shared in the green paper thread) was nothing but polished spin. All that “consultation”🤭 talk, but no recognition of what we’re really up against. Just like Reeves, Kendall, and Starmer 😡 all stat sheets, no soul. I have added my views on Scope’s Green Paper Thread(SGPT).
Here’s the bitter irony they won’t confront and is still a great cause for concern and a reason to fight back :Instead of addressing the root causes behind the rising number of disabled people like poverty, burnout, long-term post-viral illness, workplace discrimination, and delayed NHS care -they’re ruthlessly doubling down on benefit cuts.
They don’t want to fix the broken systems 👆. They just want us off their books and to tidy up their budgets. It’s all too clear in the rushed, non-inclusive, and vague proposal — and the so-called consultation process, which is marketed as accessible but is anything but.
As Inclusion London puts it so clearly:
“We live in a world that disables us through systemic barriers. Benefits are not ‘extras’ -they are essential support to help us survive, participate, and live.”
And yet, they’re being gutted. Not to save lives, but to save face.
The statistics I’ve been reading in the Family Resources Survey 2022–23 -thanks again to @santosha12 🙏🏽for pointing me to it on the SGPT — are truly sobering, especially when considered alongside the powerful May 2024 House of Lords debate on “People with Disabilities – Access to Services.”
That inclusive debate covered the many challenges faced by disabled people, including access to benefits, employment, education, housing, and healthcare. This is such a crucial argument, especially in light of the current reality-where even a Labour government, which many of us hoped would champion the vulnerable, appears to be pushing through cuts that disproportionately affect disabled people. It’s a sobering reminder of how easily our needs can be sidelined, regardless of who is in power.(Fair warning: That debate is a very long read, but absolutely worth the effort!)
And let’s be honest: things have only worsened since then. More people are falling into disability, poverty, homelessness, and hunger. And when you place that next to:• NHS waiting lists in absolute crisis
• A crumbling social care system
• SEND services slashed to the bone
• Housing that’s inaccessible or just unaffordable
• And workplaces still not even close to inclusive…(Credit: Inclusion London)…
it’s no wonder so many of us are trapped and invisible.
What stings most is how we’re portrayed. Lazy. A burden. It’s insulting and childish. Politicians using dog-whistle slurs to justify what is, quite frankly, economic violence against the most vulnerable people in society. They don’t just cut our benefits; they deny us the dignity and peace we deserve, as if our lives are expendable.😡
As you pointed out : The courts already ruled the Tory green paper plan unlawful — because the whole thing was built on the lie that it would help disabled people “back into work,” when the OBR’s own analysis said only 3% might actually benefit. Labour’s version? Same rotten framework, just dressed up in fancier suits, built on unreliable paper thin evidence and blocking the voices of vulnerable people in the consultation process .
You’re right, Juls. They are trying to erase us. But they’ve underestimated us too.(credit: @grumpy1314)
We’re not going quietly. We’re not backing down. And we are most definitely not alone.
Thank you for suggesting I reach out to DPOs -I’ve tried a few already, including local DPAC, though I’ve not heard anything back after couple of emails . I imagine they’re completely overwhelmed. I even shared an email list of every DPO I could find in SGPT, but I’m unable to locate it. It’s so exhausting trying to chase it all up with my brain fog-especially when navigating our comments within the whole forum threads is quite difficult, unless it’s your own thread.I’m thinking of messaging our lovely Scope Admin Mods just to see if there’s a better way to track our own conversations.
Thank you for the laughter and solidarity, Juls. You keep me going. And you remind me that even when we’re knackered, even when our lives feel like they’re hanging on by a thread, our voices still matter.
You’re right-they really are making our lives a living hell. All we want is a peaceful, stable life. A life where we’re not punished for simply existing. But they won’t allow that, will they?
I’ve known real hunger and so have many others, Juls. I don’t say that lightly. As I said, I remember stale bread and empty cupboards. Starvation isn’t just hunger……it’s a fear that gnaws at you. And I never want to go back there again. But with all these cuts, that fear is creeping in again. There are days I pray for a miracle- that my health will suddenly return, and I’ll be able to work like I used to. But that hope only ever sets me up to fail when I start to push myself . I spend 80% of my time in bed now. My body just doesn’t play along.
I’ve written to my Labour MP five times. The last one was that brilliant Benefits and Work letter you shared. The two replies I got so far? Just the same Labour spin, repackaged as local concern - full of the usual waffle about “supporting people into work.” But who asked for that? It’s insulting. I deliberately left some parts of that B&W letter untouched — I wanted to see if he’d actually listen and stand up for us when this hits Parliament. No answer yet.
I also saw a post from @yogibear yesterday on SGPT about the Disability News Service article that mentioned three firms of solicitors preparing to challenge these benefit cuts. What caught my eye was the line that “many of these proposals will be implemented via primary legislation.” That’s serious. So I urged others to prepare and respond directly to the consultation-because if enough of us raise our voices now, it can’t be ignored when this goes to parliamentary debate.
We might not know all the parliamentary processes - but we know this much:A proposal not built with disabled people must never be passed over us.
Your last post really touched me. You’re so sharp and informed. All your posts are informative 📰I’ve learned more from you and the Scope community😇 members than from any policy document or politician. Being disabled is a full-time job in itself. I can’t even get to my own garden most days. And yet, I have to stay alert to every headline, every rumour, every consultation-just to protect the fragile stability I’ve managed to build. It’s draining, leaving me with no energy for anything else. 😔
Thank you for being there, Juls. For your humour, your fire, and your honesty. Keep shining your light we all need it!
In solidarity always!0 -
I've found a link to a petition on 38 Degrees from Benefits and Work that I think is worthwhile signing. There is 96.6 thousand signatures already!! 👌🤗
PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE!! 👍
https://act.38degrees.org.uk/act/no-cruel-cuts-to-benefits?bucket=copy-native-2025-03-11_&utm_campaign=2025-03-11_Welfare+Cuts+2024&utm_medium=native&utm_source=copy
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Thank you , Juls . I’ve just signed it. Did you notice that the ‘No 4-Point PIP Descriptors’ survey on Benefits and Work has now been closed?
Best wishes ✌️1 -
It could be…
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I think starmers rule with an iron rod and suppressing thoughts of mps it seems apart from reeves and kendell will be his undoing can you imagine how many mps dislike him this is the turning point votes coming up so this is when we see what's really going to happen I can see many already plotting behind thier backs I'm sure many did join with hope to do great things especially the new mps to be faced with the worst when we look back riots jailing people letting people who did horrific crimes walk free suppressing freedom of speech not lifting child benefit taking winter fuel giving billions abroad I mean a 20million pound donation to build airport abroad !!and now disabled from people who cannot feed themselves toilet themselves!! From serious mental health conditions no one left untouched absolutely shameful I can't wait to see the house of cards fall then would definitely blast out things can only get better unforgivable
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I feel exactly the same, @Catherine21. They should be ashamed of how they’ve treated disabled and vulnerable communities. While some MPs quietly disagree and a few speak out, far too many remain silent. The attitudes shown by the Starmer ,Reeves,Kendall trio towards our community are not just harmful -they’re deeply toxic and dangerous.
What frustrates me most is the way they’ve misled the public-claiming to “listen” to disabled people, while sidelining our voices to justify slashing £4.5 billion. The “Pathways to Work” proposal and consultation is nothing short of a sham .
It’s insulting. It’s a betrayal. But we will keep speaking out-through every avenue we can.Disabled and vulnerable people cannot be silenced or sidelined. There is strength and power in our voices -and we will make them heard.
In solidarity ✌️0 -
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I would love to be a fly on the wall
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I wish I could just be a fly on the wall too… Catherine….but I can’t. I have to stand up and speak out-not just for me, but for my family (I’ve got three kids) and for all of us in the disabled community. That includes you, me, everyone here on Scope, and every family across the UK going through this.
Honestly, I feel like I’m in survival mode every single day-and that’s with barely any health left in me. This is the state this government has pushed us into. It’s not living… it’s just trying to hold on.
But I/we will keep fighting for our rights with whatever strength we have left. We won’t be silenced, and we won’t live in fear.
In solidarity ✊
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I agree keep sharing keep trying x
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Some encouraging developments for a change!! 🤗
The Canary reports that up to 80 Labour MPs could lose their seats in the upcoming Local Elections over DWP cuts.😉
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Almost 200 Labour MPs have a majority smaller than the number of recipients of personal independent payments in their constituencies!! 🤗
‘Electoral wake-up call’: dozens of Labour MPs risk losing majorities over welfare cuts
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/apr/14/electoral-wake-up-call-dozens-of-labour-mps-risk-losing-majorities-over-welfare-cuts?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other1 -
I am starting to think that unless the changes affect you then nobody seems bothered by what happening. My Mp seems distant to me not wanting to comment
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To me it seems very obvious what's happening with the MP's ….
Starmer rules with an iron rod and the MP's are scared to go against his mantra for the fear of been kicked out of the party and so jeopardising their £95,000 salary !
Money talks.
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(Apologies if already shared)
I’ve just sourced this useful comment from the Benefits and Work webpage:
“Equal Lives (Norfolk, suffolk) are calling for comments on the govt proposals, which they will anonymise and send to all mps in the area.
Email is communications@equallives.org.uk “
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Thank you for the motivation and for helping keep the momentum going in standing up to these cruel government proposals.
With respect and solidarity ✊1
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