Ten thousand white flowers were placed last weekend on the green before the UK Parliament, each flower representing a person with disability who died within three months of assessment by the private company Atos, which runs Britain's Work Capability Assessment.
Former Atos assessor Dr. Wood blew the whistle on what he witnessed working for the company. “The assessments are cruel and unfair,” he said in an article recently published in the British Medical Journal, and “making unwell patients more unwell is a disgrace too.”
The British government's decision to hand over healthcare testing to Atos has been has caused “enormous and avoidable suffering,” according to a group of senior Edinburgh-based doctors, as printed in the The Edinburgh News.
Many campaigners have claimed the government and Atos have an agenda to remove vital state support for disabled people to save money at whatever the human cost. Secret filming of Atos recruitment supports this claim. A Guardian report revealed how Atos managers pressured assessors to only take on 13% of the people that the NHS had diagnosed as disabled.
The 10,000 Cuts & Counting ceremony last weekend was coordinated by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Occupy supporters, anti-austerity groups and faith leaders. In front of a temporary stage, with Big Ben as the backdrop, the crowd of hundreds listened to harrowing personal accounts of the assessments' impacts on individual lives. People with disabilities were at the fore, sharing poetry, giving speeches and performing drama.
Members of the London Gospel also sang in a service that included religious figures critical of Britain's austerity program. The remembrance was partly led by David Ison, the new Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, and Islamic activist and academic Mohammed Ansar, who demanded that the responsibility for assessing people's disabilities return to the National Health Service.
The 10,000 in the event's title refers to the death toll released by the Department of Work and Pensions, based on a freedom of information request, and includes people who died between January and November 2011. The figure does not count those who have died since as a result of failing to receive treatment. The government refuses to release any information on those who lost state support and have died since last year.
“I think it’s absolutely disappointing in its predictability. The 10,000 figure is a vast underestimate because it only measures people in two out of three outcomes," Andy Greene, a member of DPAC’s national steering committee, told Occupy.com.
“The figures for deaths of those placed in the 'fit for work' group have never been made public. For these people, they've had all support cut and demands placed on them; they can either find work or be forced onto workfare," he added. "Under threat of sanction, a quarter of a million disabled people were sanctioned within three months of losing disability benefit.”
Atos assessment forms and appeals procedures are blamed for being long, arduous, extensive -- and especially inhumane for people at the end of their lives. The process was condemned as adding stress and anxiety, and even directly causing some deaths as helpless people were pushed to suicide.
Explaining the impact on people who get removed from state support by Atos, Greene said: “These people still have their impairment. Barriers still remain within society. But now, without support, they face poverty levels of income and we believe the stress and trauma for them means that thousands more will take their own lives and be swept under the carpet.”
A mother of three children with disabilities spoke at the ceremony, responding to the government’s attack on people who need state support. “We’re not scroungers, we’ve paid into the country all our life," she said. "They are trying to attack us further. It has to stop: we have to stand up.”
Deep criticism of the government’s policies was also expressed by Ison, of St. Paul's Cathedral, who led a prayer demanding change to the government policy, and included phrases akin to a political speech. He asked the audience to turn first to Abbey of Westminster and called for its solidarity, compassion and concern for all “who suffered because of the cuts and assessments.”
Turning next to the Supreme Court, Ison called for an end to discrimination and violence against disabled people. But his strongest message was reserved for the Government Treasury and Parliament. As all turned to the Treasury, he urged officials not to “tick boxes rather than care for others; for all those in our society who make money more important than people... we stand together for truth and equality.” And to Parliament, he said: “We need a new deal for disabled people and an end to assessments which demean or distress them.”
Before holding a two minute silence, St. Paul’s Dean stated that people were suffering "because of what the government has done in our name," and concluded the silence with the words: “To us, they are people.”
In the role for just over a year, the Dean's open criticism of government represents a seismic shift in the Cathedral’s official stance. During Occupy London’s camp, under the previous Dean's tenure, the Church was frequently critiqued for its cozy ties to City of London institutions and its lukewarm support for the social justice issues Occupy raised.
After the 10,000 Cuts & Counting remembrance, an open letter was delivered to Prime Minister David Cameron, demanding the government rectify its “shameful offenses in targeting disabled and vulnerable people.” Signatories included the Dean as well as Michael Meacher, a minister who is fighting against the cuts and who also spoke at the ceremony.
When it first introduced changes to disability support in 2010, the government's rhetoric legitimized the plan by suggesting that major fraud and abuse was occurring in the system. Now, that rhetoric has fomented popular anger toward people with disabilities, with hate crimes against them increasing by over a third between 2010 and 2011.
Andy Greene, from DPAC, contradicted another of the government’s claims. “Most people who now claim disability benefit have worked all their lives and finished due to ill health," he said. "The idea that there are disabled people, separate from workers, is a myth. People now disabled have contributed to the public purse and have a right to the safety net they thought they were paying for.”
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