Get your MP to act against cuts

Hi again @jul1aorways ,
Thank you ever so much for your lovely message. It truly meant a lot to read your kind words after my A&E visit yesterday.

I’m still in pain but thankfully on the road to recovery. What really stayed with me from yesterday was a brief but touching moment while waiting in the long queue -I had a chat with an elderly couple, the gentleman aged 86 who’d fractured eight ribs and a vertebrae after falling at home on a wooden cabinet . They’d arrived at 9 in the morning and were still waiting for a bed by 9 in the evening. Yet, despite the pain and distress, he simply told me, “It’s just a bad day – I’m in the right place now and I’ll soon be back in the garden.” His quiet strength and positive outlook really moved me. Compared to what he had endured, my own pain injury felt quite small. It gave me a fresh perspective and renewed determination to keep going.
That moment strangely mirrored the spirit we’ve been sharing on the forum lately , reminding me again of the power of resilience, hope, and standing together.
Like you said so beautifully, it’s the journey - the process of pushing back, lifting each other up, and holding the line – that carries as much importance as the outcome itself. We may not yet know how this fight will unfold, but every voice raised, every post shared, and every person empowered makes a difference.

I completely agree with what you said about the ministers – we’ve got to keep writing to MPs, raising awareness and challenging these reforms head-on. As our lovely Scope Mods updated-94 MPs recently took note of constituents’ concerns, which I think is a promising start – but we can’t stop there. As @Grumpy1314 put it so powerfully last night , we must show that we are not weak, and we will never stop standing up for our rights.

I’ve also now come across the public consultation events and accessible formats now listed on the official Pathways to Work Green Paper site. I was surprised they’re charging for printed copies – which hardly helps accessibility – but I’ve shared the key links on Scope’s Green Paper thread, and I’ve asked the moderators to consider making an announcement too, especially as so many members have found the full documents far too long and exhausting.

As you and others have highlighted, this isn’t just policy or proposals – it feels like an outright attack on disabled, vulnerable and elderly people through their ethos since Labour taking office in July 2024 . But what the government clearly doesn’t realise is the strength we draw from each other – the solidarity, the real-life stories, and the unwavering spirit that binds us.

So yes, let’s keep going. Let’s encourage others to respond to the consultation, join the campaign, and keep making our voices heard. I’m seriously thinking of attending one of the virtual consultation events myself to better understand their proposals – and to challenge them on their own terms.

Thank you again, Juls. Your words have lifted me more than you know. Let’s keep standing strong – together.
Wishing you and your husband all the very best,

Take good care

Hi @Tori_Scope - I hope you are keeping well 😊

I've just sent a photo of the letter I received this morning from my MP to campaigns@scope.org.uk

Thank you for the update about the event on April 2nd & all the work that Scope as a pan disability does for us all.

Sorry to hear you’re going through such a tough time, @Grumpy1314. Life can be so hard for those of us dealing with all this, can’t it? Please be kind to yourself and take things as gently as you need to.

Great values to have @Grumpy1314 👏Have a great day!

(Lifted from DPAC)

List of Labour MPs who have supported the cuts.

Cabinet:

Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Kid Starver)

Chancellor Rachel Reeves (Robber Reeves)

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Killer Kendall)

Publicly defended the cuts:

Torsten Bell, Darren Jones, Pat McFadden

Get Britain Working Group

Dabid Pinto-Duschinsky, Luke Akehurst, Bayo Alaba, Jas Athwal, Danny Beales, Rachel Blake, Nesil Caliskan, Luke Charters, Shaun Davies, Jim Dickson, Helena Dollimore, Graeme Downie, Damien Egan, Allison Gardner, Amanda Hack, Gurinder Singh Josan, Andy MacNae, Blair McDougal, Frank McNally, Samatha Niblett, Jon Pearce, Gregor Poynton, Connor Rand, Steve Race, Joani Reid, Mike Reader, Jake Richards, Tom Rutland, Mark Sewards, Sarah Smith, Mike Tapp, Fred Thomas, Dan Tomlinson, Jo White, Shaun Woodcock, Steve Yemm.

Labour MPs who have said they will rebel against the government

• Diane Abbott, Hackney North and Stoke Newington
• Lee Barron, Corby and East Northamptonshire
• Lorraine Beavers, Blackpool North and Fleetwood
• Richard Burgon, Leeds East
• Ian Byrne, Liverpool West Derby
• Neil Duncan-Jordan, Poole
• Cat Eccles, Stourbridge
• Chris Hinchliff, North East Hertfordshire
• Alison Hume, Scarborough and Whitby
• Imran Hussain, Bradford East
• Kim Johnson, Liverpool Riverside
• Mary Kelly Foy, City of Durham
• Ian Lavery, Blyth and Ashington
• Brian Leishman, Alloa and Grangemouth
• Emma Lewell-Buck, South Shields
• Clive Lewis, Norwich South
• Rachael Maskell, York Central
• Andy McDonald, Middlesbrough and Thornaby East
• Navendu Mishra, Stockport
• Grahame Morris, Easington
• Connor Naismith, Crewe and Nantwich
• Simon Opher, Stroud
• Andrew Ranger, Wrexham
• Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Clapham and Brixton Hill
• Jon Trickett, Normanton and Hemsworth
• Chris Webb, Blackpool South
• Nadia Whittome, Nottingham East

Labour MPs who have expressed opposition to welfare reforms

• Dan Aldridge, Weston-super-Mare
• Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree
• Stella Creasy, Walthamstow
• Marsha de Cordova, Battersea
• Paul Foster, South Ribble
• Barry Gardiner, Brent West
• Mark Hendrick, Preston
• Peter Lamb, Crawley
• Rebecca Long-Bailey, Salford
• Kate Osamor, Edmonton and Winchmore Hill
• Kate Osborne, Jarrow and Gateshead East
• Polly Billington, East Thanet
• Alex Sobel, Leeds Central and Headingley
• Yasmin Quershi, Bolton South West
• Steve Witherden, Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr

Hi @noonebelieves I do hope that you are feeling better than you did. 🤞😊

I was moved by what you said about the 86 year old gent who was in A&E with you, how you described his quiet but upbeat courage and determination. 👌

Most people of that age, in that situation, would be really upset by what had happened to them. He dealt with what had happened to him so well, that he really deserves to get back into his garden as soon as possible but you can't say at his age, sadly. I do hope he does. 🙏

Someone like that does put your own problems into perspective. I one of my non epileptic seizures in the kitchen yesterday, a worse one than usual as I tend to go into them quite slowly. I am almost or completely unable to move while this happens.

I am aware of what is going on throughout fortunately so was able (just) to put my hand out to the floor to break my fall. It was worrying though but I was OK. I just needed to take it very easy for the rest of the day. 🛏️ I have a bed downstairs too so didn't have far to go. 👍

My smartphone recorded a hard fall and my partner, who had only gone upstairs quickly to get something soon came down at the sound of the siren going off in it. ⌚

Normally, I can just move enough to be able to phone him with my watch when I have a more usual soft fall. It only takes a swipe and two presses but I was unable to do anything until he roused me, the dog was helpful with that too! 🐕

I know that I have gone into that in detail but non epileptic seizures are not like other types of seizures, as you can see!

I'm a lot better today, but as you've said yourself, you feel that you haven't gone through anywhere near what the man at the hospital did but it was still bad enough for both of us. We mustn't underestimate that. 🤔

I read that particular post that @Grumpy1314 wrote. It was very inspiring and to the point, nice one Grumpy! 👌😀 Quiet a few things have happened very recently which must be giving us all more hope. SO MUCH MORE TO DO though, none of us can sit back and take things for granted. It's only early days yet, we are only just really getting the foundations sorted, then we must build securely on them and then keep building for as long as it ever it takes! 💪

I'm glad that you could see my point about the journey being as important as the destination. 😊

I currently seem to be writing this email, responding to that survey, signing a petition etc, etc. As you know, it's not easy when you are disabled but it is SO well worth doing, from every long email to every time we sign a signature we are making just that bit more of a difference to how all this is going to play out.

It seems that between about 70 - 75% of the general public are on our side too plus nearly thirty MPs are going to vote against this with about another 10 against it. That doesn't seem many but there was only about 6 or 7 MPs that voted for the child benefit cap so that's good going, in comparison. Hopefully, more of them will find their moral compass and backbone and vote for us in July. 🤞🍀

We wish you, all the best too, 👍 and do take care of yourself, especially at the moment. 😊

If you still are struggling to email your MP for any reason or worried about not being able to word it in exactly the right way for greatest effect, as I've been doing, here's what I consider a truly excellent template on the Benefits and Work forum. I hope that it might help some of you. 🤞😊

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/forum/10-dla-esa-queries-results/149338-letter-template-to-mps-about-green-paper

Good Luck!! 🍀 👍

Thanks, @jul1aorways ,

I wholly agree with you. It’s an excellent template. I have just emailed it to my MP, adding a brief personal narrative on the impacts.

Keep up the good work.

Best Wishes!

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.

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!!