Iain Duncan Smith’s DLA claims – Disabled People’s Organisations, members, family, friends, carers and supporters’ Letter to the Daily Telegraph

Iain Duncan Smith Photo: GEOFF PUGH

If you wish to sign this letter please post your name and location, any organisation you belong to etc. in the comments thread below. 

We are writing to you as representatives of Disabled People’s Organisations. We wish to express our disgust and disquiet with the views expressed by the Work & Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith in his interview with the Daily Telegraph (published, 14/5/12).

Let us first deal with the “Big Lie” contained in the interview. Iain Duncan Smith believes that the current system of DLA application conceals “massive fraud”. What evidence does Iain Duncan Smith base this assertion on other than his evident prejudice against disabled people. His own Department (the DWP) estimates that fraud accounts for only 0.5% of DLA claims. Since when did 1 in 200 become “massive”? In fact DLA is one of the benefits with the lowest levels of fraud.

Secondly there is the Secretary of State’s use of the phrase “festering at home” to describe disabled people with lifetime awards of DLA. This not only betrays Iain Duncan Smith’s appalling attitude towards disabled people but also a complete misunderstanding of DLA. Many thousands of disabled people use their DLA to maintain themselves in work (e.g. in paying additional transport costs).

The DWP estimates that 550,000 people will lose all or part of their mobility support when the Personal Independence Payment is introduced. So when that mobility support is withdrawn tens of thousands of disabled people will become unable to afford to go to work. Is this an outcome that Iain Duncan Smith desires?

But why should Iain Duncan Smith’s ignorance of the consequences of reform come as a surprise? – given that the EHRC has just issued a damning report showing that Government Ministers failed in their legal duty to carry out equality impact assessments on their proposed welfare reforms. Then as now it seems that the Government prefers wilful ignorance to care and compassion.

SIGNED:

Bill Scott, Manager, Inclusion Scotland

Tracy Lazard, Chief Executive, Inclusion London

John McArdle, Founder Member, Black Triangle Campaign

Dr. Stephen Carty, Medical Adviser, Black Triangle Campaign

Linda Burnip, Co-Founder, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC)

Debbie Jolly, Co-Founder, Disabled People Against Cuts

Rahel Geffen, Interim Chief Executive, Disability Action in Islington (DAII)

Andy Greene, Islington DPAC, DAII

Anne Novis MBE, Disability Rights Activist, Disability Hate Crime Network

Steve Paget MBE, Chair, Disability Cornwall

Pam Tinsley MBE, Formerly of Remploy

Adam Lotun Disability Risk Management & Reasonable Adjustments Consultant, Workplace Disability Adjustments

Steven Preece, Social Welfare Union

Paul Smith, Atos Victims Group

Sue Marsh, Diary of a Benefit Scrounger Blog, Producer of the ‘Responsible Reform’ Report sent to the House of Lords -“The Spartacus Report”

Kaliya Franklin, Disability Rights Campaigner and writer, Benefit Scrounging Scum Blog

Claire Glasman, Women with Invisible and Invisible Disabilities (Winvisible)

Charley Downey, Trustee for Press, PR and Communications, The Forgotten Heroes “Caring for the Carers”

Rosemary O’Neill, CarerWatch

Ernest Ross, Black Triangle Campaign

Anne Pridmore,  DPULO, “Being the Boss” : www.beingtheboss.co.uk

P. Rawsthorn

Linda Taylor

John Koshy

Rachel Deakin

Carl Douglas

Flora Cumming

Liz Crow, Roaring Girl Productions

Tim Gatty

Zechariah Richardson

Linda Phillips

David Mullen

Yvonne Tyrrell

Kim Burns

Gillian Raab, Chair, Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community – Sukkat Shalom

Iloa Bell

Dave Skull, Mad Pride

Joanne Shaw

Finn Raven

Tudor Davies

Pat Williams, 25% M.E. Group

Michelle Crowley

Cara Lannon

Jason Hill, North Staffordshire Against Cuts

Neil McKenna

Patricia Walker, Cornwall

Yvette Howell-Williams

Robert Ormesher

Stephen Porter

Paul Hewitt

Jemma Goucher

Jo Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne

Kerry Thomas

Rob Parsons

Jacqui Keam, Registered Blind Person

Katt Mason

Cathy MacLennan

Karen Gray, Llanilltud Fawr, South Wales

Andrew McDonald

Raymond Shemilt

Bridget Price

Helen Sheridan

Jan Tchamani, Member of Bipolar UK, DRUK

Merlin Reader, Secretary, Camden Trades Council

Helen Sims, Cerebral Palsy since birth

Steve Johnson

Chris McCabe

Sue Brock, Carer of a disabled young man of 18 coming up for 19.

D J Smith, Mature Student OU, Psychotherapist (not currently practising), Unite member

Lisa Jones

Ke’reth Epetai Makura

Charlie Waring

Kim Burns

Lee Kerr, Father of son with Semantic Pragmatic Disorder and associated autistic behaviours.

Jenny Archer

Marianne Hill

Kim Burns  

Celia May

Suzanne Lowe, Newcastle upon Tyne

Leon Carter, Disabled Carer and Blogger

Kirsty Birkner,  Member of Glasgow Disability Alliance.

Matty May

Jane Burkinshaw

Chris McCabe

Little Gransden, Cambridge Volunteer, former carer & production manager

Dale Latimer

Kathy Baguley, Disabled person who worked for 30yrs before becoming too disabled to work

Maggie West, :

“There are no words that I have not already written about this subject, often in enormous distress. I await the time when the crimes committed by politicians and the media will be accounted for in law…..The days, weeks, months and years I have watched the two members of my family who are ill, be offended and distressed,insulted and slandered by men and women not worthy to hold a torch up to them.

“They will never have their courage and bravery in the face of adversity and suffering.They are not fit to wipe their boots and I will gladly attend these unprincipled individuals and organisation’s trials when their time comes and it will.

I will eagerly await explanations to the public and their victims as to why they have accused millions throughout the UK of fraud with their sweeping generalisations and cowardly innuendo.

Let’s demand and hear evidence in a court of law of how family members are now free of long term and life shortening illnesses.

Documents to the effect that the illness that keeps the sick, ill and dying from enjoying life,holding a job down,fulfilling their potential and building a future has now left them.

Those guilty and complicit in these crimes are shallow men and women who have no morals ,no qualms at bullying the weak in their race for power and wealth and will be held responsible.”

Christopher Hoggins, ESA Appellant

Phil Barker, Leeds

Anna-Rose Phipps

Diana Harrison

Dr Anthony Shedden

Penny Dellow

Rosalyn Adams

Sam Barnett-Cormack, Co-author of ‘Responsible Reform’:  The Spartacus Report

Helen Owens

Christopher Dunn, Father of a daughter with Asperger’s Syndrome.

Merry Cross

Angela Williams Torbay, Devon. Member of Action for M.E.

Liz Parker

Vee StJohn-Byles,  Disabled Carer

Ron Roberts

Tony Dean, The Lizard Cornwall, Member Disability Cornwall, Member National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD)

Neil Anderson Machynlleth, Wales.

Gill Hooper, Neuromuscular patient + paraplegic

Jay Astarte

C Morgan, Carer for my disabled child

Nicola Jones

Lesley Brownlie, Parent/carer of a child with Autism and SPD

Nile Nugnez

A. Li, Edinburgh.

Jayne Gowland

Michelle Maher

I.F.I. May

I. James, Buckinghamshire

Andrew Clark Chair, Bucks Disability Service (DPULO)

Cait niCadlaig

Dean Williams

Dean Stockton

Catherine Lamb Nottingham

Judith Pettigrew

Jeffrey Davies

Karen May

Jeffrey Davies

Rae Twelftree, Ipswich, Suffolk.

Fraz Robb

Lynn Rhode, Ex-Royal Air Force

Linda Horton, Parent carer of 2 teen boys with ASD

Alex Watt

Martin Cameron

Sally Bailey Buxton Derbyshire

Jane Clout  Hove, Sussex.

Ruth Emery, Member of HMSA – I havean invisible disability and feel very threatened by welfare reform

Elizabeth Worsley

Calum Smith, Save ILF

Rachel Pridmore, Mum with Autisic Twins aged 12

Mark Harrison, CEO NCODP Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People

Neil Thomas

Steve Paget MBE As Chair of Disability Cornwall

Debbie Domb,  HAFCAC (Hammersmith & Fuham Coalition Against Community Care Cuts)

Sharon Minter

Vicky Ayling, Leicester

Margaret Rooney

Ross Campbell

Amanda Buckingham, Carer for disabled son

Lyn Phillips

Barbara Hulme, Manchester.

Sam Sharp, Mental Health Worker

Angela Gunton – Norwich  

Graham Linnell – Norwich, Carer for my partner and also disabled

Roderick Millard, BA, MA, Son who has partial deafness and ASD

Gill Lawton

Lord Hartley

Beverley Nash

Sue Campen, Disabled human.

Nigel London, Mobility issues and two clashing and complex life threatening medical conditions

Sue Campen, Findlow, South West.

Sean Pearman

Rosamond Broad

Kanjin Tor

Pam Long May

Ray Buckley,  Brighton

Cindy Lou, South West, Carer for disabled son

John T. Horsfal, Long-term Type-1 Diabetes

J Knight,  AFTER ATOS – “Counting the Disabled Back In – Because People Matter”

Jackie Hawkins

Gary Mason

Anthony Bradstock

Chris Gregson, Support Worker, Belper

Dr. David Atoski

Michael Evison

Sergio Bono

Debbie Sayers

Jackie Manning

Michelle Moakes,  Newton Abbot

Jane Young, Disability Consultant and Campaigner, wearespartacus.org.uk

Jill Jervis

Jane Young

C Richardson, Ouchtoo.org

Kevin Howard, Herts

Helen Trick

Lizzie J

Sarah Levis May, Ontario, Canada

Jan Pollock, Equalities Officer, Kens. & Chelsea Trades Council and DPAC

Adrianne Sebastian-Scott

Carole Ann Holmes

DAVID A SHAW, Medically retired postal worker of 22 years service

Dave Ainslie

Rachel May

Stu Baker

Alexandra Denman, Paignton, I suffer with four lifelong illnesses and am disabled.

Pat Onions, Pat’s Petition

Simon Grant

Peter Austin Somerset Member NASS (National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society)

Annie Bishop

David Maguire, Blackpool.

A. Malka

Jean Paul Beaman – Ex-employer of a closed Remploy factory

Gordon Eagling

Kate Rigby

M. Bragg

Colin Dobbinson,  Full time carer for progressive MS sufferer.

Paul Smith, Atos Victims Group

Elaine Hoctor

Sue Rees, Parent and carer for my disabled son.

Sharon Root

Faye Lowe, Sidcup, Kent

Marriane Brodie

Richard Lynch

Peter Lee

Mark Romano, Swansea, UAF

Kieran Tanswell

Sue Hale

Mr.  B. Sampson

Leon Carter

Martyn Ounstead

Gordon McFadden (Director, Policy. Limbcare)

Roy Noon

Dawn Hanson, Long term health problems, including mobility issues.

Natalie Meadows

Graham Askew

Sarah Veilar

Joe Cassels

Robin Kinrade

Susan Budworth

B. Rawsthorn

Martin Byrne, Nurse, Haslingden, Lancs.

Rebecca Hodson

Iain Gillingham

Sarah Kaye Chair of Stockland Green Against the Cuts, Student Mental Health Nurse and sibling of someone with a severe disability who has just been told they are no longer eligible for ESA.

Debra Halliday

Allison McLean May, Disabled manager of a Voluntary special needs club based in Hartlepool

Rebecca Hodson, West Midlands

Suzanne Elliott, Cambridgeshire Ex- Young Conservative

L S McKnight

Barbara Smith

Jan May

Dawn Hanson,C hesterfield, long term health problems including mobility issues

Cristiano Di Carlo, Hampshire

Anthony Rundle

Kyle Bradley

Lynn Bradley

Kevin Leonard, Northumberland.

Patricia Gledhill, Carer and member of West Midlands Act Now for Autism

Christos Palmer, Mentally and Physically Disabled

M. Rawsthorn

Maureen Arthur

Sue Taylor

Kassy Fatooh, U.S.A.

Karen Johnson, One Voice Wolverhampton

Paul Kayes

Katherine Gault

Christopher John Ford, Chris Ford, Disability Issues Spokesperson, Alliance Party of Aotearoa, Dunedin, New Zealand

Liam O’Coalithe

Sammi Ferguson

John Morrow, Gateshead. Tyne & Wear

Annie Bishop, Northumberland  Deaf Network

Dianne Taylor 

Carol Edgington

Sandra Pritchard

Cheryl Moncrieffe

Kathy Jagger

Phillip Wilson, Hull

Sandra Pritchard

Carol Edgington

Mrs TN Hughes, Conwy

Paul Rutland, Chair, RMT TfL No.1 Branch

Sarah Wiles

Peter Horning, person living with a terminal illness.

Andrew Sharp

Alan Gardner

Anthony Colquitt

Paul Stygal, Southend-on-Sea

Ronnie Gordon

Elaine Grange. Mother of a child with Aspergers Syndrome and Pathological Demand Syndrome,

Sue Casely

Lindsay Rutland

Doug Peters

Elaine Tilby

Benjamin Swaine

Jonathan Eyre, “I am Spartacus”

Paul Mansfield, Southend- on-Sea

Gina Mayers

Julie Steadman

Denis Donovan May

Teresa Catto-Smith (Act Now For Autism)

Miranda Jackson, Psychotherapist working with clients on DLA and as a long-term sufferer of M.E.

Robin Bray-Hurren

William Taggart

Helen Hale, Mother of a non-verbal adult with Autism and severe learning difficulties

Janet Lewis Hastings “I too am Spartacus”

Katy Board

Robert Board

Linda Pugh May

Katherine Fox

Mandy Emmett

Jim Ross, Brain Tumour sufferer

Helen Bryant “I am Spartacus”

Bill MacLeod, Mentally and physically disabled

Neil Campbell

Josie Thomson

Sioux Jordan

Roderick Millard

Annette Barclay

Jim Paterson, Disabled war veteran (Northern Ireland)

Magda Horrocks

Kayleigh James

Janet Graham, Scotland

Angela G Norfolk

Dr. Raymond Kelly, Manchester

Tara Allan

Matthew Pearson

Ian Warner, Disabled Small Businessman. Kittiwake Classics

John Ingamells

Marc Rensing, Preston

Steven Preece

Councillor Michael Roche

Christina Sosseh, Worker with adults who have learning disabilities

M, Cairns

Helen Kersdhaw

Rachel Shewen, Northampton.

Paul Davidson, Gateshead, Mental Health and Life Long Physical Health Media Campaigner

Trevor Fairminer

Darren Lynch, Preston, father of three children with disabilities

Robert Mooore

Ross Allan

Joyce Littlejohn

James Melson, Newcastle

Laura Walker, Sheffield, Carer & Mother of an 11 year old disabled child.

Sheila Lewis

Bonita Quitenton, North Norfolk, Spartaci

Joan Anthony

Calum MacKinnon

Corinne O’Keeffe, Brighton, multiple chronic illness sufferer.

Ebony Dawn Marsh, Edinburgh, Disability Rights campaigner

Joe Baxter

Margaret Burton, Kent

Louisa Bone

Richard Leach, Full time carer for my partner.

Mary Brett, Manchester

Maggie Cox

Michelle Mackenzie, Dundee

Sue Jones, Autoimmune Illness Sufferer

Phillip Anderton

June Heaney

Mandy Sanderson

Ben Gilightly, Swansea Youth Fight for Jobs

Natalie Jones

Jo Mackwell

Sarah Law

Carolyn Cameron

Kim Blake FRSA

Tansy Feltis

Ian Cropton, Stevenage

Graham Venn, HMSA, DMuk, EDS UK

Michael Smart

Alan Wylie

Steve Tilston

Max Wootton

David Edwards

Pamela Hartley, Carer of disabled teenager

Marianne Scobie, Disabled, Works full-time, “If I lost my DLA I’d have to give up working”.

Anita Bellow

Jill Jervis

Daniel Linger, Spalding, Lincolnshire

Hayley Rowson de Vares

Tracy Edwards

Doug Troup

Chris McKeag

Norma Anderson

Duncan Brown

Mr & Mrs Peter and Katie Allen

Geraldine Mitchell, Carer, Therapist

Yvonne Parmenter

John Mortimer

Yvette Broadhurst

Claire Turner

Matthew J. Smith, New Malden, Surrey

Lorna Campbell

Cheryl Ryder

Brian Knowles

Diane Johnstone, Long-Term Sufferer from Crohn’s Disease

Catherine Ray

Sue McCafferty

Wanda Lozinska

Catherine Davis, Disabled Carer of Disabled Partner “Struggling. Terrified.”

Steve Malley, East Kent Chronic Pain Association (EKCPA)

Glynis Ward, (EKCPA)

Lindsay Lee

Bob Jones

Joie Parris

Denise Longman MSc

Gill Shutt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

480 thoughts on “Iain Duncan Smith’s DLA claims – Disabled People’s Organisations, members, family, friends, carers and supporters’ Letter to the Daily Telegraph

  1. flora cumming says:

    This is a cost cutting exercise which will adversely affect some of the most vulnerable people in our country.

    1. Jim Elder says:

      His is social cleansing and potentially a criminal act of manslaughter for which those who are responsible must be brought to justice if such a thing still exists in this morally corrupt establisment run non-democracy.

  2. Kim Burns says:

    I am a disabled person and am horrified by this government’s treatment of our country’s disabled, which is callous, uncaring and marked by complete ignorance of the facts. They assume that all disabled people live on benefits – whereas many work. They assume that every unemployed disabled person could work if they wanted to and if they could be bothered to find a job – whereas some are not capable of working, and those of us who have had to stop our jobs because of our disability have little or no chance of finding other work, as employers are loath to take on disabled people. They assume that there are jobs out there for anyone, disabled or not, who wants one, whereas there are hardly any jobs in the whole country. Furthermore, disabled people who are wheelchair-users or who have great difficulty in walking are very reliant on DLA, especially for the Motability car scheme, which gives us dignity and independence – all of which will be lost of we are not eligible for PIP – for example because we can occasionally prepare our own food. To paraphrase a wonderful poem, ‘First they came for the disabled, but I said nothing because I wasn’t disabled’ – Even if you’re not curently disabled, sick, poor or unemployed, look out – You’ll be next…..

  3. Jemma Goucher says:

    The claims made are discriminating and prejudice. No one will understand the hardships disabled people face, unless they are disabled or care for someone who is. Mr Duncan-Smith should look at things other than from an over inflated MP’s point of virw!

  4. Kerry Thomas says:

    Many of the families that have individuals with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder in my area have become victims of hate crime due to the demonisation of the disabled by individuals like Iain Duncan Smith advising the public they are scroungers. Iain Duncan Smith should be charged with inciting hatred towards the disabled. I have two severely Autistic children and I can tell you my kids are not scroungers – they are disabled through no fault of their own. Iain Duncan Smith is critical of individuals such as my children because he thinks the people of this country should not support them, I’m sure he will be advocating that they are all packed away in an institution soon because its better for the economy. The economy is more pressing than the needs of unfortunate individuals – I fear for this country’s morals.

  5. jacqui keam says:

    As a registered blind person, I find these comments deeply offensive and am fed up of being villified by this government for political reasons.Over the past couple of years I have noticed an alarming change in the public perception of the disabled.I have experienced this myself with people screaming “fraud ” at me, frightening my guide dog.My children have also suffered this kind of abuse at school and no longer have free school meals as they are made targets of hateful behaviour-labelled as scroungers etc.

  6. Cathy MacLennan says:

    As someone who has suffered at the hands of ATOS I find the comments by Iain Duncan Smith demeaning.

  7. andrew mcdonald says:

    torys you souldnt expect any thing else from them…if my wife lost her dla she would have to stop working hence she will have to try and claim dole wheres the sense in that

  8. Raymond Shemilt says:

    IDS will not be happy until all of us disabled are dead and buried, he is driving us all to suicide … perhaps thats what he wants.

  9. A. Former-Tory says:

    Please can we have the percentage of fraud perpetrated by MP’s including “unintentional” fraud, ie erroneous claims? I bet it is more than 0.5% of expenditure on MP’s expenses. I am so glad some rich person can claim a duck house off the state when I don’t even have a usable bathroom due to poverty. If you don’t want me to “fester”, I suggest you make sure I can afford to keep clean. Oh, and I do work, in one of your schools, in one of the lowest paid technical jobs in the UK. I have been working full time and paying taxes and National Insurance for 34 years. I used to be one of your lot as well, but I developed critical thinking. I am also a single parent. My child has a first class honours degree. I suggest you shove your assumptions about the disabled and other “minority” groups where the sun does not shine and go back to school sonny, because you are still wet behind the ears if this is your sum knowledge of the good people of Britain.

  10. Helen Sheridan says:

    Everything is so simple for a rich, able bodied man sitting in an ivory tower, the reality for millions of disabled people is so far removed from his sphere of experience that he can’t even imagine what it is like. These cuts are extreme and unnecessary, they cause suffering for no purpose. It is not about austerity, if it was then there are plenty of better ways to raise revenue than stealing hope and dignity from people with disabilities. This is an ideological attack against people who don’t fit the Tory master plan.

  11. Jan Tchamani says:

    Also member of Bipolar UK, DRUK and MIND. We are resourceful, positive, wise, intelligent, useful people – why bring us down? The problem is, you don’t know how to handle our kind of person – we don’t easily fit into the kind of society you wish to create – and so you seek to weaken, demoralize and destroy that which you do not understand rather than make the effort get to know and understand us. You need to work out what OUR place in the community actually is!!! Then make space for our valuable contributions. Then you will see what we can offer the rest of the human race and this planet. By turning your back on us, you are also missing out on some rich and fruitful relationships – with people who look at the heart rather than the body, the mind rather than the wallet, the soul rather than the car.

  12. Helen Sims says:

    I’ve had Cerebral Palsy since birth. I cannot walk or stand unaided. My life is one of more or less constant pain, exhaustion and heartbreaking limitations. I’d love a job and a normal life, but my pain and energy levels mean that on some days I can barely get out of bed. I did not chose my life and I wish more than anything else in the world that it was different. I want to be a mother but I can’t do that even. I am not a scrounger but this government and its lies and media hate campaign against disabled people like me, have eroded my self esteem and self respect, which I have spent a lifetime trying to keep. If I lose my D.L.A as a result of a flawed and unfair assessment system, I will lose my what independence I have too. What else will be taken from me? We struggle enough. We are human beings and none us want to live like this. The anxiety since the government began doing to us has been terrible. It is unfair and heartless. They are targeting people who, quite frankly, have enough to cope with on a daily basis. I ask you from the bottom of my heart to show some compassion and tell the truth. We do not deserve this.

  13. D J Smith says:

    It’s high time IDS’ strategic exaggerations and damning portrayals, the concerted media propaganda and the whole machinery of disability denial was brought under widespread scrutiny.

    Mature Student OU, Psychotherapist (not currently practising), Unite member

  14. Lisa Jones says:

    a society is judged by its treatment of its most vulnerable members – we are an abomination if we allow more attacks on the vulnerable.

  15. Lee Kerr says:

    Mr Duncan Smith clearly has no understanding of disability issues or DLA. I worked with older and disabled people for 30 years, I have a disabled son and disabled friends so I have as good grasp of the situation as one can without having a disability.

    My son has a semantic pragmatic disorder and associated autistic behaviours. He has always required more activities than other children his age and when he was young, much of his DLA was spent on taking him to places and experiences which would expand his horizons. This enabled him to develop strategies for dealing with situation which would otherwise have caused him great distress.

    In secondary his DLA was spent largely on childcare, which he needed until he was 16. Most childminders are reluctant to accept disabled teenagers but eventually we found an excellent one who had a daughter old enough to see him as cute rather than annoying. In addition there were small children who regarded him as a hero, which was very good for his self esteem.

    He’s now 23 and has worked his way through a range of college courses, starting with life skills and work skills, basic computing and is now half way through a level 3 course in Media. This sounds like a great success story but it is only half the story. If he has to go anywhere new he needs an escort for the first few weeks or his father and I will spend several weeks teaching him the route.

    Often things which are obvious to other people need to be explained to him. E.g. the occasion he didn’t realise that the bus home from college was the same number as the one which took him there. Fortunately he recognised a tall building in the distance and walked towards it until he knew where he was; Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to him to phone us and we were on the point of calling the police when he got back. We’d failed to tell him to switch on his phone when he got out so we couldn’t contact him.

    He’ll go in the shower but forgets to actually wash; he’s afraid of being burned or scalded so will wash up in cold water and is scared to cook food. He is scared of dogs; he’s been known to get totally lost just ten minutes from our home because he’s run away from a dog (on a lead!) near our house. he will only wear certain colours and items of clothing. He was very scared of hairdressers but about seven years ago I found one who were wonderfully patient without treating him like a child. Even so, he won’t go alone. They are now moving to the outskirts of the city so a haircut will involve two buses there and back for us both and will take about three hours.

    There are also issues around his toileting which I would love IDS to experience.
    My son’s DLA goes towards giving him an ordinary life and he will need it more than ever when/if he finds work, as well as if/when he leaves home andor his father and I die.

    1. bridget price says:

      Your son sounds like someone really interesting to know. You must be so proud that he does manage to work out how to get home using lateral thought. Fantastic.

  16. marianne hill says:

    i am in agreement with the letter and willing to sign as a disabled person and mother of a disabled person who has just been made redundant due to the governments spending cuts adversely affecting the social care sector. In terms of my work experience supporting clients with severe and enduring mental health issues this impact this has on the stability of their health issues is more expensive that the benefit the government would save from cutting benefits keeping in mind the cost of nhs beds ….

  17. Rogr says:

    I fully agree with your letter and am happy to sign. The rhetoric this man is spouting last saw daylight in the 1930’s in Germany and a war was fought to eliminate it. Sadly he has learnt nothing from history and seeminly nothing from his own department – certainly nothing of compassion or decency. He is, and remains, an ideal candidate for post-natal abortion.

  18. Celia says:

    Disgarceful! It’s clear this man has little or no understanding of disability and his words and actions only serve to compound the ignorance and discrimination that we have to deal with on a daily basis.

  19. Matty says:

    Dressing this up as austerity is disgusting, this is ideological change by a party committed to attacking and denying basic human rights to all disabled people. To claim they can remove x number of people from a benefit BEFORE they assess even 1 person shows this isnt about fraud or austerity it is aimed at making sick and disabled people bear the cost of the Tory party friends and funders who have ransacked the public purse and brought the country to its knees.
    Shame on anyone who votes for these animals ever again.

  20. Jane Burkinshaw says:

    IDS doesn’t have a clue about disability. His stance and the government’s are abusive toward those too disabled or ill to work. It really is beginning to look as though they’d prefer us all to die. If you’re well and in work, don’t get complacent, as illness and disability CAN strike at any time.
    Whatever happened to humanity and common decency in this country?

  21. Chris McCabe says:

    I fully support the letter, & condemn Government lies & incitement to hatred of people with disabilities.

    Chris McCabe

    Little Gransden
    Cambridge

    Volunteer, former carer & production manager

  22. Kathy Baguley says:

    Disabled person who worked for 30yrs before becoming too disabled to work. Perhaps IDS thinks being on the waiting list for bilateral lung transplant is languishing at home – I can assure him, it’s not my choice !
    Compassionate conservatism we were promised – when do they intend to start showing us some ??

  23. Christopher Hoggins says:

    I am currently struggling through the e.s.a appeals process as a direct result of a grossly incompetent Atos medical. I find I.D.S’ and the ConDem’s position on the welfare system at best deluded and at worst thoroughly evil.

  24. Anna-Rose Phipps says:

    I wish to add my signature. My psychiatrist supports me whenever i have to send off yet another ESA50 form and i am dreading going to ATOS. My condition has prevented me being able to sustain any type of work, forget full time. I have struggled with trying to even complete my first ever degree course at the open university. I am 52 years old, childless, single and socially isolated . I was wanting to complete my degree, go back to doing voluntary work 2 days a week, join a gym and complete my novel, as well as decluttering my flat since i’m a semi hoarder. But i am living in suc terror that the government will take my lifeline, my support from me that i spend each day surrounded by my mess, lacking in self confidence, energy and motivation precisely because i am scared that if i make even the slightest progress, i’ll be considered ‘fit for work’. It is like being psychologically paralysed, caught in a miserable double bind. I keep imagining a black future in which i had better get a serious suicide plan in place, just in case i am forced to lose my dignity all over again.

    1. bridget price says:

      I know exactly what you mean about even being too scared to force yourself to do the little you can! Don’t let the bastards grind you down! Your socially isolated ….. but you have us. We are all on your side. We will not let the Nazis get such a hold this time round. We will save each other.

  25. Diana Harrison says:

    I dont know how IDS comes up with the figures on fraud, when the real figure is well under 1%. Disabled people need every penny they can get, just to try and live independently in a world that caters for the able bodied. Without DLA many of us will become housebound, struggling to afford to be able to eat and pay our more expensive costs. Myself I use my DLA to help afford higher of heating, paying for someone to take out my assistance dog, having a personal assistant and paying for my electric wheelchair. Without it I would end up in a care home. This is something which Im sure the taxpayer doesnt need as I wont be alone there, with so many others also suffering similarly. This is NOT the road forward, this is going back to days of Victorian England where disabled people were stuffed into large institutions. As for the disabled who can currently work, they are now having their vehicles taken away and losing their jobs because of these cuts. These measures have to take into account the rights of disabled people to live and contribute to society, currently the thinking around these cuts ensures that this will not happen.

  26. Dr Anthony Shedden says:

    I thoroughly endorse the comments above. Smith shouldgo for his nasty,spiteful, ignoant and utterly reprehensible remarks

  27. Penny Dellow says:

    This government is definitely the worst ever for it’s treatment of the sick and disabled. It hasn’t got a clue what people are suffering and they have stopped the benefits for far too many sick people – this PM is acting like Hitler, he obviously wants all the disabled to die of starvation from not having any money. What a nasty, evil, vile man and as for this apology of a politician IDS, he should have the use of his legs stopped for one week and see how easy it is to live – especially with no money. Go on IDS, try it. Who votes these disgusting people in?! Do not ever vote conservative again – not any of the big 3 – get a new party in.

  28. rosalyn adams says:

    disgusting that the vulnerable are being targeted to make cuts especially when the rich are given tax cuts

  29. Sam Barnett-Cormack says:

    I’m prepared to have my name attached to this. However, I have no organisational affiliations that could be used. Though I was a co-author of Responsible Reform and principle author of the wearespartacus.org.uk, these were not produced by conventional organisations and no-one speaks ‘for’ anyone in those regards. So if you want to put something after my name, please do check it with me and get confirmation first before sending it off.

  30. Christopher Dunn says:

    Consider it signed. No organisation, just the father of a daughter with Asperger’s Syndrome.

  31. Merry Cross says:

    No words can describe the horror of the inhumanity and disdain for facts, displayed by IDS.

  32. Angela Williams says:

    Torbay, Devon. Member of Action for M.E.

    Please add my signature. I’ve been disabled due to chronic ill health for over ten years and am appalled by Iain Duncan Smith’s use of the word ‘fester’ to describe how he views those of us who are too ill to hold down a paid job. His apparent belief that sick and disabled people don’t contribute anything to society says more about him that it does about those of us who have to rely on welfare benefits.

    I’m proud of how well I cope with my illness and confident most of the time that despite my physical and mental limitations I’m still capable of ‘leaving people and things better than I find them’. Thanks to the internet there are lots of ways to get involved in making the world a better place and on balance I see myself more as a giver than a taker. This is only possible thanks to DLA which funds the support I need – if that’s taken away then my coping systems will fall apart and I’ll have no energy for anything except the fight to survive. The references in the comment immediately above about the double bind and the terror that any achievement will led to being found ‘fit to work’ are spot on – how have we ended up with a system that works against sick people in this way?

  33. Vee StJohn-Byles says:

    I am a carer for my husband who is fairly bed bound. I am disabled myself, various things, including macula degeneration -I used to be a senior social worker who saw just how service cuts as well as financial cuts truly affected the daily living and functioning of people who have the temerity to be disabled in the first place. We are all human, is compassion not a human trait anymore?

    If my husband loses his DLA which consists of mobility allowance, he will lose the ability to get around with me helping him (car and electric scooter) I cannot lift the power chair into our car and we need a different one to allow him to get out and to be independent, but who can afford a new car? We need extra heating as he is in bed a lot of the time, and bills are rising. Just what is it that the powers that be do not comprehend about all this. And this, is the tip of the iceberg.

  34. Ron Roberts says:

    The Government is an absolute disgrace, taking money from disabled people to cater for the ‘needs’ of bankers is morally repugnant.

  35. miki67 says:

    This ‘man’, I.D. Smith, is a lying,cheating hypocrite with fascist ideology in his soul. He needs to be removed from office,on a number of counts,but principally for his scurrilous comments about the disabled.
    He is not fit for office.

  36. papasmurf says:

    Tony Dean, The Lizard Cornwall, member Disability Cornwall, member National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD)
    Duncan Smith is a disgrace and not fit for office.

  37. Gill Hooper says:

    As a Neuromuscular patient + paraplegic I can assure IDS I do not ‘fester’ but would certainly do so without my DLA , to use an alternative definition of ‘fester’ IDS comments rankle and leads to me feeling resentful of his disability in understanding our disablement

  38. Jay Astarte says:

    The winter of anxiety I have just suffered as I fought against a decision to stop my DLA has made my illnesses (M.E., generalised anxiety disorder and chronic depression) much worse.

  39. Nicola Jones says:

    I am on ESA in the Support Group, but only as my MP took up my case and queried why I had been placed in the WRAG when I had “unlikely to work in the longer term” on my report, yet I failed to meet their very narrow tick box requirements. I have an invisible illness, and suffer incapacitating pain. My life is poor enough without the constant stress of brown envelopes. I won’t qualify for DLA again due to narrow requirements, so it is far from easy to get.

    The Government and the papers show their ignorance of these benefits all the time, initially conflating DLA with ESA and talking about it as a out of work benefit, it’s not. David Cameron claimed DLA for his sadly departed son, yet no mention of that ever!! How can you reform something you have no understanding of?

    There have been some really good ideas for reform put forward by people who really do understand the situation, but these have been ignored, probably because they don’t slash the budget drastically. I know a good way of raising money, sort out tax evasion, because, you see, that will impact the rich and comfortable, rather than the poor and vulnerable. Easy. What do you mean they won’t do that? huh? Surely that is what any humane, compassionate and sensible government would do? why do we elect these awful awful people? Oh, thats right, we didn’t elect them did we!!

  40. Nile Nugnez says:

    I fully support the letter. This isn’t the road forward, this is going back to the days of Queen Victoria. Since when has the war on poverty become the war on the poorest and least fortunate? Where are the fairness and ethical compass that made this a country to be proud of?

  41. Jayne Gowland says:

    Please add my name, I’m a carer, that is sick to death of this government picking on the sick and disabled of this country!! My husband has appealed against the decision to put him in the ESA WRAG group, God knows how long that will take, he hasn’t had a WCA yet, but the lady at the job centre, who saw him for his ‘back to work’ interview, said he was too ill to be looking for work. No doubt when he gets his WCA they’ll say he’s fit for work, when he’s fit to drop more like!!

  42. michelle maher says:

    I am one of the individuals who live in constant fear of the Brown Envelopes deciding my future because of your cuts

  43. cait ni cadlaig says:

    I will be dead from hypothermia if not this winter then certainly I can barelt heat and pay bills etc but if you deem me “fit for work” which I cannot do then I will die .

    I will be one of many but then dead people are CHEAP Good on you, you have saved money and lost a disabled woman who although very ill does her part in her community.

    I do all sorts (for free) when my disability permits It is only an hour here and there but it has led children on to further study and success and more .
    What a wonderful bunch of begrudgers you are Kicking the disabled and vulnerable Says more about you than I!!!!

  44. Dean Williams says:

    I fully agree with the contents of this letter and hope you read it and fully understand the contempt I feel towards your deluded ideas.

  45. Dean Stockton says:

    Add my Name I am fed up with either being told ‘PAIN IS ALL IN THE MIND’ or I should be able to do more than I can do

  46. Judith Pettigrew says:

    IDS has shown himself unfit to hold office even in this government. That takes quite some doing, but is nothing of which he should feel proud

  47. jeffrey davies says:

    the only fraud being done is by this goverment by their deveous ways theyare treating the sick whot they have not grasped it will come back to haunt them i cant wait jeff3

  48. Karen says:

    As someone who worked all her life and then became ill I found my life changed to being on of abject poverty and stress. I keep getting 0 points on assessments only to have them overturned on appeals. I have several serious medical conditions yet ATOS consistently lie and omit information in their reports and get away with it. DLA is a lifeline for many people. Making it harder to get for people who truly need it will CAUSE disabled people to fester away in their homes. IDS is a privileged fool who has no idea how the disabled people of the UK live day to day

  49. Rae Twelftree says:

    Ipswich,Suffolk.
    This government’s views on all vunerable members of our society is beyond the pale, how about offering help and support rather than dismissing these members as not worthy of any consideration and a blight on our society. It is absolutely disgusting.

  50. Lynn Rhodes says:

    An ex Royal Air Force service person, who now has a disability trhough no fault of my own…worked all my life and paid all my taxes, only to be told that those who have paid their stamps can no longer recieve benefits! after 1 year! charming! Is that all the gartitude you get!

  51. martin cameron says:

    the man is a discrace, as are the rest of the tory and libs they have shown that they have nothing but contempt for the sick and disabled people of this country, makes me ashamed to be brittish

  52. Adam Lotun says:

    Adam Lotun
    Disability Risk Management & Reasonable Adjustments Consultant
    Workplace Disability Adjustments

    The use of negative language, deliberately false & misleading statistical information and soundbites that are tantamount to incitement of disability hatred against the UK Disabled Community all stem from the steps of the DWP and are all the responsibility of Iian Duncan Smith et al…

    Please also support the epetition calling for a debate on this same comments that I have posted: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/33791

  53. Elizabeth Worsley says:

    Happy to sign. I am a carer of two children on the Autism Spectrum. We receive DLA for them and it is used to save for holidays, clothing and days out as well as birthdays and Christmas. Without it they would receive nothing while we study in order to be able to get better paid jobs in order to support them even more. Not that I think IDS would care about that anyway, he seems to thrive on peoples anger.

  54. paul barnard says:

    disgusted and shocked at the wholesale demonization of the sick and disabled by these ignorant greedy sociopaths that can only have been allowed into power through fear.

  55. Jane Clout says:

    The facts of the DLA/PIP situation prove that this attack on the disabled is a politically-motivated move rather than a moral or genuine austerity measure. The disabled and the unemployed have become easy scapegoats to deflect attention from the bigger issues our economy is facing, with politicians using the media to turn everyone against each other, with every benefit claimant who isn’t a wheelchair-bound paraplegic labelled a ‘scrounger’.

    Forget the banks, forget tax-dodging corporations and billionaires, what about that woman with MS? Couldn’t she be doing more to help the economy? The recent rise in verbal and physical attacks on the disabled is almost certainly attributable to this shameful policy.

    I have seen how these ‘assessments’ are carried out and the effect they have on disabled people. They are designed to be humiliating and prove that the claimant is a liar / can do more than they admit; they seize on anything (e.g. old man puts a brave face on his condition and says he can do more than he realistically can / person with crippling rheumatoid arthritis admits that on a good day they can use the oven) to force them off benefits and make the figures look better. It seems to be irrelevant that lives are being ruined and people genuinely in need are sent home distraught, confused, scared and without the money they need to live a dignified existence.

    They say a society can be judged by how it treats its weakest members. If this is the case we are sinking very far indeed by actively and repeatedly picking on the section of society that can defend itself least. That such a high amount of decisions by the company running the asssessment are overturned on appeal should raise alarm bells – what about those people who are too vulnerable to appeal or have no-one to stick up for them? There are certainly disabled people who have had their benefits wrongly removed but cannot face or understand the appeal process so they suffer in silence.

    This is with the current system of assessment – after the last crackdown they now want to take benefits off a further 500,000 claimants and reduce spending by 20%. How on earth can you determine care of human beings by the same kind of arbitrary targets you would use to cut the use of stationery in an office?

    They are essentially saying this *is* how many we will kick off DLA (many less and it would cost more than £1billion being paid to the private company that does the dirty work on their behalf).

    Doctors should decide who needs what care, not politicians trying to be seen as tough on benefit cheats. To say you can cut claimants by this many *before* the assessments have taken place is disgusting beyond words, particularly as their own evidence suggests fraudulent DLA claims are so low.

    The prospect of falling sick or ill under this government is terrifying and where it will all end I don’t know. As Neil Kinnock said before the election of the last Tory goverment, “I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, I warn you not to get old.”

  56. JJ says:

    Please include me / The Forgotten Heroes in the signature list.
    Charley Downey

    Trustee for Press, PR and Communications
    The Forgotten Heroes

    “Caring for the Carers”

    E-mail: press@theforgottenheroes.co.uk
    Mobile: 07952 231105
    Web: http://www.theforgottenheroes.co.uk

    The Forgotten Heroes is a national registered charity (Charity Registration Number 1140819, registered office Phoenix House, 3 South Parade, Leeds, LS1 5QX).

  57. JJ says:

    Good letter – please add ncodp and my signature

    Mark Harrison
    CEO
    NCODP
    Norfolk Coalition of Disabled People

  58. Neil Thomas says:

    Sick to death of him peddling this lie and papers like the torygraph buying hook line and sinker.

  59. JJ says:

    To whom it may concern,

    As Chair of Disability Cornwall http://disabilitycornwall.org.uk/, I share the concerns raised by Inclusion Scotland and am happy to sign up, in support of the response as outlined, on behalf of our organisation.

    Kind regards.

    Steve Paget MBE
    Chair, Disability Cornwall.

  60. JJ says:

    Hi John
    Please could you add HAFCAC (hammersmith &Fuham Coalition Against Community Care Cuts) to the signatures on the letter.
    Thanks
    Debbie Domb

  61. Ross Campbell says:

    Please add my name. IDS and the DWP have no clue what they are doing, they lie and lie and lie. The sick, disabled and most vunerable members of our society are taking the brunt of all the cuts being impossed by millionaires that have no clue about the realities of real life in Britain.
    I’ve worked all my life and paid taxes, but now I’ve become ill I’m treated like scum and a scrounger, have been spat and sworn at in the streets and made to continually jump through hoops by the DWP/ATOS in a process that is not fit for purpose which adds to my stress, etc, then have to be forced to go through appeals, only to be made to go through assessments again and agian!

  62. Sam Sharp says:

    I work in mental health and many of our clients are already discriminated against because the benefits system is geared more to physical health than mental health. Our clients need additional support to maintain an acceptable lifestyle

  63. Angela Gunton - Norwich Norfolk says:

    I am completly disgusted, I lost three friends to suicide over losing all our money, why should we suffer even more, i think we all suffer enough everyday of our lives without being left to wither and die, he wont be happy till there is no disabled people left in the world, what ever happened to disabed rights ad equal rights its a joke!! he’l never understand till hes disabled himself how difficult life is for us,

  64. Graham Linnell - Norwich Norfolk says:

    Im a carer for my partner and disabled myself, the way weve been treated is disgusting! i care for free because my partner has had her dla taken away, what else can we do she needs full time care. lifes very difficult for both of us and hes making everything even worse

  65. Roderick Millard says:

    Please add my name to the letter:

    Roderick Millard, BA, MA

    No organisation, since my job is politically restricted, just “carer” (for my son who has partial deafness and ASD – one hell of a combination!)

  66. Gill Lawton says:

    I’ve just filled in my Limited Capability for Work form & I’ve felt physically sick since it came through my door & I know that pretty soon my DLA award is going to be reviewed too. I know I wouldn’t employ me! It doesn’t make financial sense to employ someone who’d need so much time off when there are so many people out there in need of work. The only time I “fester” is when I’m not fit enough to drive & that’s what will happen if I lose my mobility car. I’d be totally isolated.

  67. Lord Hartley says:

    Iain Duncan Smith’s comments would have him on a gross misconduct charge, a discrimination charge & harassment & bullying charge in any other workplace. The man is a fool.

  68. beverley nash says:

    I have a disabled husband who fought for his country and a son whos Autistic its disgusting what he said and what this government is doing we are going backwards in time what next bring back workhouses?!! my son is at a special school he desperately needed to go there he wasnt thriving at all in mainstream this is all so wrong

  69. Sue Campen says:

    Add my signature to this letter.
    And put Disabled human.
    This coalition have forgotten we are human beings.
    Thanks to IDS I am now facing my fourth ESA assessment in 3 years, despite winning two tribunals, would have won the second but they lost all information on my claim/appeal and had to start all over again.
    Each torture session/appeal/tribunal takes well over 6 months. That is six months of pure stress.
    I am not looking forward to fighting for my DLA when they change it to PIP but I am one of the lucky ones, my children help me to battle on, they talk me out of suicide and take care of me, as I am unable to do most things for myself. Including typing this, it is being typed by my daughter, as I cannot.
    IDS is not fit for office and should resign.

  70. Nigel London says:

    As well as mobility issues I have two clashing and complex life threatening medical conditions and a third which I have overcome for the present, but which remains a constant threat of return, due to medication I have to take.. I have suffered these conditions for many years and I contracted them through serious errors in my treatment on the NHS!!

    I am chronically tired and in constant pain and need all my strength to simply fight the conditions I have, yet fully expect to get a rough ride from these unfair and disgusting ESA and PIP changes. These new schemes are simply unfit for purpose and were rolled out without proper consultation or impact assessments. The whole process has been spun out by the Government and the Tory supporting press and is purely to save money without a genuine thought for those in need.

    Although I agree in principle with disabled people being helped into work where they can be.. There is SIMPLY no money to do this as it will cost a fortune!… In any case there is very little work for those who do not have disabilities, meaning disabled people have NO real chance of finding proper work that pays a living wage in this current climate…

    Therefore the Government is fully complicit in the wholesale misrepresentation and disregard of disabled people and it knows full well the affects these policies will have.

    People are already dying and IDS and the Government have their blood directly on its hands. Shame on them all!

  71. Findlow says:

    L. Findlow, South West. please add my name to your letter. I don’t represent an , organisation, but am disabled with ME. No diagnosis for 5 years during which I carried on work and exercise with ever increasing difficulty until I couldn’t walk. That was in 1989. Ian Duncan Smith, I do not “fester”, I try hard to cope with a very disabling neuro-immune illness, and your scrounger rhetoric is abhorrent and making ill people iller.

  72. Kanjin Tor says:

    I second the words of Jane Clout but would like to add my own personal condemnation for his behaviour.

    This disgusting man claims to represent conservative voters with his attacks on the disabled community, many of whom are former service personnel wounded in combat, or suffering the cost of a life of rigour that no civilian could ever begin to understand. I cannot believe it.

    IDS has only one interest – himself. His vile unprincipled and utterly unconscionable attacks on disabled people reveal a deeply embittered soul who long ago abandoned his ethics and morality in the pursuit of ideology and greed.

    It is with great shame and repugnance that I have to admit that this scheming dishonest individual was ever a fellow military man. That he learned nothing whilst in the Army about honour duty loyalty and courage can only be because he was an officer in the Guards [who are basically upper class dilettantes] rather than one of the men.

    I cannot think of a worse fate for a man than to be remembered only for possessing the character flaws of ‘stupidity, arrogance, craven corruption, coupled to a treacherous nature born out of personal cowardice’.

    Shameful.

  73. Pam Long says:

    I am not a member of an organisation but I am appalled that these misleading and inaccurate articles keep appearing.

  74. cindy loulouxx says:

    Im a carer of my disabled son and am disgused with the Tories and their ‘cut everything’ and make the poor and disabled suffer. I am also disabled and my husband works had to keep me and our family and we struggle to maintain a decent standard of living. We do not claim benefits. Its disgusting that this pathetic governement are not only not doing anything to help people who are generally in need, but to cut their help (not just benefits, healthcare, support), is disgusting. I support this all the way, please add me to the list. I am not a member of any organisation.

  75. John T. Horsfall says:

    I’m a long-term type 1 diabetic, 1 or less than 1,000 in the U.K. as I’ve been so for over 50 years. Amongst the (many, but not the full range of potential) “complications” I’ve endured/suffered/ call it/them what you will, I lost the lower 1/3 of my left leg in 03, after breaking my foot whilst asleep. This took my general practice over 3 weeks to discover & act upon. If they had done so sooner, & known about the condition called “Peripheral Neuropothy” then it’s very highly likely I wouldn’t be in this situation today. I am most definatly NOT for G.P’s running the NHS, as many of them are of limited competance for what they’re supposed to be doing, let alone taking on extra work running the NHS. & to have that bible-bashing hypocryte try & tell me, that he’s not afraid of rattling my cage is really beyond belief. If he want’s to know what amp’s suffer from, let him spend a full 24/7 week with some, before he go’s into his self appointed & failed accountancy mode. He could run the country, he should’t try & wreck peoples lives, especially those who’ve faught to try & preserve HIS wonderful country.

  76. After Atos says:

    Signed

    J Knight
    AFTER ATOS
    Counting the Disabled Back In – Because People Matter.

    Let’s have an accounting and an account. Let the truth be known and the government be held to account. Let no more suffer and let no more be lost.

  77. bridget price says:

    ATOS are providing a sham ‘medical’ for the vilification of the sick and disabled at the behest of DWP. This may be simply a ploy to undermine the welfare state of the UK (instigated by UNUM in order to push their insurance in a country less prone to litigation than the US). It may be the first step to annihilation. With the removal of DLA it certainly seems like the latter may be the case. Don’t use the showers!

  78. Jackie Hawkins says:

    I heard today that the Government wastes £31 billion. I too have a disability and lost my ESA and am now on A4e’s work programme. I’m 51 and have spent most of my life bring up my kids, so no real work history other than the part time jobs I fitted in around my kids but I can no longer do physical work, so feel I’m pretty stuffed really. No one ever talks about the over 50’s unemployment let alone those of us with disabilities as well. I spend half my life worrying about what’s going to happen to me. i’ll sign and share.

  79. Gary Mason says:

    Unto you, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.
    O my God, I trust in you: let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me.
    Yea, let none that wait on you be ashamed: let them be ashamed who transgress without cause.
    Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
    Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you do I wait all the day.
    Remember, O LORD, your tender mercies and your lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.
    Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to your mercy remember me for your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
    Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
    The meek will he guide in justice: and the meek will he teach his way.
    All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
    For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my iniquity; for it is great.
    What man is he that fears the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
    His soul shall dwell at ease; and his descendants shall inherit the earth.
    The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.
    My eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.
    Turn you unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
    The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring me out of my distresses.
    Look upon my affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.
    Consider my enemies; for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred.
    O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in you.
    Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on you.
    Redeem us, O God, out of all our troubles.

  80. Anthony Bradstock says:

    I have worked and paid taxes all my life. Now I need support, through no fault of my own, I find I have to fight tooth and nail for it. To quote from Wikipedias IDS entry: “October 2003. Michael Crick revealed that he had compiled embarrassing evidence, this time of dubious salary claims Duncan Smith made on behalf of his wife that were paid out of the public purse from September 2001 to December 2002.” Wikipedia also defines HYPOCRISY as “the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have.”

  81. Chris Gregson says:

    Chris Gregson, Support Worker, Belper
    IDS should be thrown out of his job for this interview, his comments about Remploy and all the lies and insinuations he’s made over the years. Alone we whisper, together we shout!

  82. DR DAVID ATOSKI says:

    So smell the coffee…Or next time You won’t be grinning at the replies on here, you’ll be posting for help and asking “what the f*** happened ?????

  83. Sergio Bono says:

    Sure enough the culprits are not the weak and needy but the powerful and rich that have wasted the wealth made by many for the egoistic advantage of the few.

  84. Debbie Sayers says:

    As a teacher of mental health clients I am appauled by the treatment my students are getting at the hands of the DWP. As a person with a longterm health problem myself I am astonished that I am looking at having to give up my work because under PIP I will most likely no longer qualify for the help I currently receve which enables me to work. I find it equally astonishing that Mr Smith seems so ill informed by the fraud rate or purpous of DLA a benifit he is hell bent on replacing with PIP which after closes inspection is ill thoughtout and will most likely cost the tax payer more to impliment than DLA currently does. It seems to be very clear through the launguage that is comming out of the DWP that this is not only a cut to save money with no consideration given to the long term damage that this will have on the working disabled of this country and the devistating effect the chainges are having on the wellbeying and lives of millions of disabled people. But this is a ruthless attempt to down grade the sick and disabled to secondclass citizens in the eyes of the public.

  85. Jackie Manning says:

    Please add my signature to the list.

    I wish IDS could spend a week as a disabled person just to get an insight as to why DLA is essential to all of us.

    Why start with the Disabled why not start with people on Jobseekers who can’t find work? It would be cheaper to help and retrain them then paying out for ATOS medicals for peoples whose conditions aren’t going to change.

    What about people who come into this country and are given benefits straight away!

    The government needs to look at the whole Benefit structure not single out those who are less able and already discrimated against and prejudged by society.

  86. Jill Jervis says:

    Yes, please include me as I will be either out on the street or dead by the time they finish with me. I have M.E. My condition has got worse since all this began. I now have very high blood pressure and a possible heart condition now and my health is failing. I’m losing hope of any good resolution to all this, every day. I’m so sorry for us all but this is persecution and this man and the others who think like him aught to be locked up for hate crimes against the vulnerable and disabled.

    1. kasbah says:

      Jill I think it may be that he could be done for hate crime-because perhaps his language about us could be said to incite hatred in others-what does anyone else think?

      I am very frightened, but not cowed.

  87. Beebs says:

    Nothing to do with ignorance, its by design. To cull. Its eugenic, no doubt about that, and only those who are able to work will survive, the chronically ill, NOT.

  88. stan says:

    For a Minister of State to be so IGNORANT of the subject he is overseeing is a disgrace.
    Every death due to the abuse by Him ,the DWP and Atos must be documented in the hope that in the future this odious man is brought to account.
    Sadly many of us will not be here to see it due to his uncaring policy.

  89. Lizzie J says:

    To quote the late, great Douglas Adams: “the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation * are a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes”. For * read IDS and cronies

  90. Jan Pollock, Equalities Officer, Kens. & Chelsea Trades Council and DPAC says:

    This Tory Government wants to destroy the welfare state while giving enormous tax benefits to millionaires BUT WE WONT LET THEM. Solidarity with our Greek sisters and brothers who are resisting austerity!

  91. DAVID A SHAW says:

    IDS is the ultimate coward and ignoramus. Not only is he an out and out fascist in his thinking, he simply has no comprehension of the consequences of his actions and how those he willfully harms through ignorance are affected. I would like to meet him face to face across a discussion table, then we would see who is the fool and who is the one with intelligence, for this is his downfall, he lives with an archaic view that disabled people are worthless and should be locked away and ignored by society as they are worthless. He will be shown that this is not the case, but he will never speak to any of us in person, for as i said he is the ultimate coward and ignoramus.

  92. Adrianne Sebastian-Scott says:

    London.
    Pease add my signature.

    I am disabled and I was very upset by the things IDS said. I am very frightened about the cuts to DLA – I need it. I’m worried about the reassessments the government wants to inflict on disabled people every year.

    I have MS and I also had 14 months of almost constant Trigeminal Neuralgia. The Atos reassessments don’t seem to deal properly with variable conditions – I can be relatively fine and then absolutely NOT fine an hour later. They also don’t count pain, fatigue, problems with proprioception, balance, confusion , etc.

    I’m one of those people who were awarded DLA for life, but the government seems to think that we’ll suddenly be ‘cured’. Or that we’re faking it.

    Work? A company might hire me, but I would be fired within a week. Why would a company keep someone who keeps falling asleep and who might not show up because they slept through the alarm?

    I am NOT ‘festering at home’ and Ian Duncan-Smith suggesting that I am is extremely offensive. But if my DLA is stopped or reduced, I might ‘fester’at home – I use it for taxis or getting things delivered because I can’t go very far or carry things.

    Cutting disability benefits is a false economy. We’d be a LOT more expensive if we needed to be in a home for chronic care.

  93. Carole Ann Holmes says:

    This odious man should now be brought before the court for the blatant acts of discrimination against the sick and disabled and also for the greater crime of genocide or corporate manslaughter. Too many deaths have occurred as a direct result of his reforms and not a thing has been done to halt the ever increasing death toll. This man is not above the law and should be put on trial for crimes against humanity.

  94. muffie02 says:

    it is easy to be critical of the disabled and sick when you are neither
    it is easy to be critical of the poor when you are on an MP’s wages

    it is EASY to be critical of IDS because he has a major disability – THAT OF RANK IGNORANCE

    its EASY to attack the disabled – MOST do not fight back – as they are too unwell to do so – BUT be assured mr smith – there are many of us out here – who WILL use what strength we have to see you and your disabled hating ILK brought to book – oh you can call us extreamist – scroungers – or worse – NAMES do not hurt us – we are used to being insulted and maligned by you – the press – and increasingly the public

    YOU WILL NEVER BE RID OF US !! – and we console ourselves that YOU and your ilk are doing a whole load of harm to your party – eventually david will get the message and get RID OF YOU to save his own ass

    thats how politics works pal – YOU will get crapped on – the same as YOU are crapping on us – note these words well

    1. DAVID A SHAW says:

      Being a medically retired postal worker of 22 years service and having worked since the age of 15 but no longer being able to do so due to the amount of daily medications i have to take, I resent the attitude of this clearly ignorant, and i must add extremist individual. His attitude smacks of that held by the powers that controlled the Germany of the 1930,s . To add to this i am sure because of the dangerous views he himself holds and his deliberate use of the media to create the public attitude he wishes, it would be interesting to see what his overall plan for the disabled and vulnerable actually is, or the one that exists in his sick and twisted mind anyway.

    2. dave ainslie says:

      this is fascism and lying,the tories are identical to hitler,i believe a legal challenge to the lies is essential and labour must bring this up in the commons,being disabled should not make you victims of hate crime which is what ids wants,they are a disgrace in every way

  95. Stu Baker says:

    A society that will not care for it’s most vulnerable is not a society I want to be part of.

  96. Alexandra Denman says:

    I am from paignton, I suffer withfour lifelong illnesses and am disabled, you would not think it to look at me and I guess this is where people think its fraud, we need to raise awareness about invisable illnesses, just because you cant see a disability does not mean its not there, and I want to sign this letter, lets keeps fighting for our rights xxxxx

  97. Simon Grant says:

    IDS
    人間のための不親切な弁解を意味します。最も容易の今目標としますが、すぐにおよび残りはあなたのつかむ方針の実質のバックラッシュを感じます。

    “This means unkind excuse for humans. But now with the goal of the easiest, and the rest soon will feel the backlash of your real grasp of policy.” is the Google Translate rendition of our Japanese supporter’s comment.

  98. Peter Austin says:

    I live in Somerset and belong to N A S S ( National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society)

    My nickname for IDS is Iain Dung Can Smith, because it would seem that his mind is full of excrement.
    His past description of sick /disabled people being “parked” on benefits , hinting that they actually enjoy the lifestyle of living hand to mouth and worrying how to pay the bills was bad enough. but describing disabled people as festering at home is beyond belief.
    He should be forced to resign immediately, he is so out of touch with reality that it is beyond belief. Then again, the coalitions welfare reforms are out of touch wiht reality!
    In his pre election speeches in 2010, Cameron promised not to touch DLA for at least this parliament, he also promised that the most vulnerable of this society would be protected from the cuts. LIES LIES and MORE LIES go hand in hand with the disgusting disablist comments of DUNG CAN SMITH.

    I also note that DUNG CAN Smith took 6 months paid leave from his duties as an MP when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, no doubt he was enjoying festering at home with her while the “un priveliged ” cancer sufferers spouses and partners had to carry on working, because they could not afford to take time off.

    I forecast that if this new P I P benefit becomes law and replaces DLA, then there WILL be people festering at home, purely because they cannot afford the extra costs of living a life with a disability.

    The govt justify the foreign aid bill of £12 billion and rising as “merely 0.7%” of GDP, yet, when they describe the cost ( £13 billion by 2015) of looking after britains disabled people , many of whom work, or have worked and paid taxes , they describe it as unsustainable!. Apparently, the UK can also afford to loan Ireland 3 billion and the IMF 11billion, pay £20 billion upgrading trident. It`s nice to know that I am thought to be less important than a weapon of mass destruction which will never be used!

    DUNG CAN SMITH< MARIA MILLER< CHRIS GRAYLING, GEORGE OSBORNE and DAVID CAMERON ( CA-MORON), YOU CAN ALL HANG YOUR HEADS IN SHAME. And you can be assured, that as a previous life long conservative voter, I will NEVER vote for your nasty party again.

  99. DAVID McGUIRE says:

    Blackpool.
    I,D.S. should keep his big mouth shut if he is unable to get the facts right.Sick to death of his lies,and general attitude to the disabled.

  100. malka says:

    i am carer who for the past 2yrs has been trying to raise awareness of the true nature of this government and particuarly IDS and Miller who are at the forefront of this brutal and cynical attack on the disabled community. IDS speaks of festering disabled people, this is typical language used by these people, they are the festering ones, the failures who have their last chances at power and have a hatred of the vulnerable, and have manipulated the media and the masses to believe their lies. DLA is bloody hard to get, and has the least fraud of all benefits, yet the insist on spending millions changing it, WHY? becasue they are sadists who want to see people committing suicide and sleeping rough, or in institutions, because of their policies, ESA, PIP, UC are all benefits designed to rob the needy of dignity and independence……….. Now people are waking up from their slumber, lets start roaring!!!

  101. JEAN-PAUL BEAMAN says:

    As an ex employer of a closed Remploy factory, I know the lenghts this blood sucking, nest lining B*%@ards will go. Death on their hands, blood on thier feet. The sooner they are gone, just cant come quick enough

  102. Gordon Eagling says:

    I am totally sick and tired of this government’s victorian attitudes. What’s next workhouses ? Have to have a good memory to be a liar…. Lies breeds more lies

    the propoganda this lot pumps out is unbelievable, trouble those not in the situations we disabled people are believe them.

  103. Kate Rigby at Facebook says:

    Please add my name. I was appalled by IDS for feeding distorted and untrue statistics and making inflammatory statements to the press which he knows full well will whip up anti-disability sentiment. How low can he get?

  104. M Bragg says:

    This is a programme of hate crime against the sick disabled.It is eugenics disguised as reform perpetrated by the so called Quiet Man of politics.Well as the shout gets louder we will see who is the quietest. YOU should be ashamed of you EVER voted tory and lets not forget Labour and LOrd Frueds part in all this.People will die……….people have and are dying….as a result of this cruel policy.BUT IDS and Co will get thier awards come the election as all the effected sick/disabled and THIER families of voting age put UHHH ARHGGG on the voting slips.They wont get in again and they know it so its smash and grab what they can now with thier mates in private firms..Look at the police they know its not reform they face its Haliburton waiting in the wings to bid for the forthcoming police privatisation………pensioners are next too …they will be assessed and taxed.No one is safe with these people.All the cuts are wrapped up in this we must do this to pay down the deficit and its bloody rubbish.You dont cut and starve people and an economy.Smash and Grab thats all they know.Real life they wouldnt know it if it bit em on thier Bullingdon backsides……….

  105. Colin Dobbinson says:

    Full time carer for progressive MS sufferer. I’m afraid IDS is just another posh git who puts his mouth in gear with his brain still in neutral. Allowing for the time she is asleep, I care for my wife for 15 hours a day seven days a week for £90.55 per week. That’s 86p per hour! Do you work for 86p/hour IDS??

    1. DAVID SHAW says:

      Does IDS actually work……i mean genuinely , or does he just sit in his office enjoying Maria Millers boot licking.

    2. DAVID SHAW says:

      Does IDS actually work ?……i mean genuinely , or does he just sit in his office enjoying Maria Millers boot licking.

  106. Sue Rees says:

    Please sign me up, I’m a parent and carer for my disabled son. The stress and harm caused by these ‘reforms’ are unspeakable. And, if there is Austerity why is so much being spent on reform?

  107. sharon root says:

    I hate the stress that goes with all of this crap it just makes us more ill its disgusting -resign IDS, CONDEMS AND ALL OTHER IDIOTS IN GOVERNMENT!

  108. marriane brodie says:

    Lets set IDS a challenge one we know he wont take up but lets set it anyway, give him £71 and a house with a gas meter and an electricty meter and a water meter with a dodgy boiler and toilet and get him to stay in it for a week, and get him to sit in a wheelchair every where he goes to see what its like down here.

  109. richard lynch says:

    well may be they will be disabled one day and have to fester at home all day, but hay thats ok cos they get fat cat pensions for sitting on there butts getting lots of money from the tax payer and big buisness no ifs no butt um

  110. peter lee says:

    What comes to mind is 1939/45, dident we hang the people who ran the death camps?, I think we must of missed some, IDS for one.
    Ad my name to the letter by all means.

  111. Sandi64 says:

    Unfortunately, we are now living under a dictatorship and just like Hitler, Cameron and his cronies want a perfect society. Hitler started on the disabled before the Jews. The Tories want rid of all disabled people and if they cant get rid of us by making us commit suicide, then our independence will be taken away, so we have to hide in our houses, so we can’t be seen in public. Cameron, IDS, Grayling, Maria Miller are the biggest scum on this earth and lets not forget, it’s the MPs who are the biggest scroungers with the amount of expenses they claim, for two houses. Cameron’s father made his millions by evading tax with offshore accounts and one day Cameron will inherit those millions in offshore accounts and will probably keep it in offshore accounts. The public should turn their hate on these people, not the disabled and needy who are in a lot of cases living in poverty. NAZI TORY SCUM OF THE EARTH.

  112. Sue Hale says:

    i would like to ask IDS if my doctor is so incapable of assesing if i am fit for work or not, why then is this goverment getting the same doctors who’s judgment is not beleived to now run the NHS. Makes no sense to me. I am house bound not due to my dissability but because i have had agraphobia for the last two years, brought about by the way society looks down on me and after being assaulted for being different. like most dissabled people this is not a life style choice and i would willing give up my DLA for a cure.

  113. Diddy-D says:

    Iain Duncan Smith is one of the lowest of Tory scum you will find loitering in the Tory Party. He is happy to cut our benefits, our means of survival, while he belongs to a privileged class of people. Their starting point is one of wealth and privilege, and then as an MP and Minister, he gets even more and more. He reminds me of a pig with its snout stuck in the trough. However, that’s unfair to pigs. They are animals who cannot help what they do. What is IDS excuse? I say cut his income. Cut it to the bone. No MP’s salary. Commandeer al his personal wealth. Let’s see how he likes it, the nauseating, cold-hearted clown.

    1. Leon Carter says:

      No he is lower than Animal because Animals do not treat there own with such contempt indeed IDS needs a few lessons in equality as all the troubles in this world is caused by the privileged few.

  114. Roy Noon says:

    I am happy to have my name added to this letter. I was appalled by the dimissive and abusive comments made by the Works and Pensions Secretary.

  115. Graham Askew says:

    I am in full agreement with the letter refuting the despicable lies that falsely smear people with disabilities.

  116. Sarah Veilar says:

    Ill sign please sign me up this IDS man is a complete fruitcake and so evil to attack the disabled and then continually AID the rich at the expense of them – FFS stop letting them off paying tax, get a spine and to be honest I wish someone who didnt go to eton could be in ‘power’ somebody who would actually DO something about unpaid taxes, about missing fathers who pay nothign, and who would not keep vilifying the disabled. FFS Cameron claimed DLA for his son and he is a MILLIONAIRE – so lets means test it – Anyone who has over 50thou a year cant have it – No millionaires can have what they do not need – AND PAY YOUR TAX YOU ETON FREELOADERS

  117. Joe Cassels says:

    Very ill informed an misjudged comments from the very person who should know this stuff. You are an unpleasant, uncaring little man, IDS. I hope you will one day understand what you have done.

  118. Rebecca Hodson says:

    Having worked for the DWP for over 12 years, I ended my career as an Executive Officer when I became disabled. I was given a choice of being sacked, resigning or accepting a compromise agreement where the Department admitted breaching the DDA (disability discrimination act) and I agreed not to sue them.
    For the first few years I was too proud to claim DLA, my husband and I were insistant we could manage on our own. Time proved us wrong and I eventually submitted a claim, which my husband had to write for me as I can no longer write for more than a few minutes a day due to the level of pain even this simple act causes. The doctor who examined me asked me why I had not claimed earlier and told me that “DLA is a right, not a privilege. It’s there to allow disabled people to afford to live, not just exist”
    Apparently Mr Duncan-Smith does not agree with this sentiment. He appears to view DLA as a privilege, disabled people as a problem.
    Although I am unable to work because of my medical conditions and the unpredictability of when I am going to be well enough to even get out of bed for more than a few minutes, I am a volunteer tutor with the Expert Patient Programme, which is delivered by our local NHS (Dudley). We have won several volunteer awards for our contribution and dedication to helping people with long-term conditions improve their quality of life.
    Without DLA I would be unable to afford to do this. My husband would be unable to work, because he would have to be my full time carer as we would no longer be able to afford Telecare’s services and other assistance.
    DLA allows people to live, not just exist. It allows me and hundreds of thousands of other disabled people to contribute to society. Mr Duncan-Smith says that DLA means we languish at home; he is wrong. By removing DLA hundreds of thousands of disabled people will become unable to contribute to society, we will cost the taxpayer vast sums of money and lose what little independence and quality of life many of us have.
    My mother, who is 65 and should be enjoying her retirement is now having to come up and be my daytime carer, as even with DLA we cannot afford the level of care that I need.

  119. Dave Shaw says:

    IDS will, true to type, take the money from the elderly, sick, disabled, and struggling families during a recession that his own party has wilfully darkened and deepened – and run. Just like the bullying coward he proves himself to be.

    We truly live in a time of fear and pity. I hope he can console himself with the perverted prestige he feels is due him for his lamentable involvement with politics. We, the disabled, have little comfort in our demoralised and thoroughly demonised state, thanks to him and his pitiable colleagues.

    Dave Shaw
    Shooters Hill
    London

  120. Iain Gillingham says:

    Please add my name to the letter, I wish to register mt abhorrence of IDS, his policies and those of this government in general towards the more vulnerable within our society.

  121. Sarah Kaye says:

    Chair of Stockland Green Against the Cuts, student Mental Health Nurse and sibling of someone with a severe disability who has just been told they are no longer eligible for ESA.

  122. zed dee says:

    The Tories in this govt are so sinister. Their attacks on the most vulnerable in our society smack of the Nazis

  123. Debra halliday says:

    Compassionate conservatives?! Only if by compassionate you mean barely human. I have been troubled to hear that disabled people have been facing abuse on the street -this is a direct result of this gov’t continued attack on those who are the most vunerable in society. IDS is a bully, along with the rest of the bullingdon bully boys.

  124. Allison McLean says:

    I am a disabled manager of a Voluntary special needs club based in Hartlepool, and including myself we have many members who without their DLA won’t be able to lead independant lives, this is not for a luxory lifestyle this is for transport, to socialise to be able to live as every other fit and abled bodied person takes for granted. This government need to realise what is happening in their own country and stop for one second and take stock, removing vital benefits from the vulnerable wil not repair Englands debt, real issues needs to be tackled first x

  125. Suzanne Elliott says:

    Cambridgeshire.

    I used to be a Young Conservative, but then I grew up! About time these posh kids grew up too!

  126. Barbara Smith says:

    I am disgusted with Iain Duncan Smith,and the plan to stop DLA benefit to those who are in most need..my daughter was born with a disability will die with a disability…there has been no magic cure since birth, you can’t change a Severe Mental Learning Disability by waving a magic wand…someone who can’t walk very far because of severe discomfort and all the other medical issues…The stress placed on me by all what they intend to do is causing me severe stress and anxiety…there will be blood on their hands…

  127. Cristiano Di Carlo (Hampshire) says:

    I am disabled and appalled, my disability is related to my service to this country and now you see fit, after all this time, to decide I am not worthy of recompense. SHAME ON YOU! This is a policy designed to cull, much the same as Adolph Hitler did in his euthanasia hospitals in the 30’s and 40’s IDS has just dressed it up in legality. Part of the charges at the Nuremberg Trials was crimes against humanity when referring to the Nazi euthanasia programme. This is not unlike it no matter how you dress it up.

  128. Anthony Rundle says:

    I rely on my DLA to get me to work everyday. Take it away and you take away my ability to work. Go figure…

  129. Kevin leonard says:

    I am living in Northumberland.

    My partner is seriously disabled and can not use her hands and is unable to cook meals make drinks etc. when making initial application for DLA was told to “put a stool in the Kitchen to help”. That was before the new incomprehensible criteria were proposed. Like all things this coalition of liars has proposed this was made up on the back of a drinks mat during 5 long days of negotiations. It sis an ideology policy of the Tory right wing and has nothing to do with saving the Nation by lowering the deficit.

  130. M Rawsthorn says:

    I want my tax money to go towards supporting the disabled, sick and vulnerable in our society, not going to big business like A4E, Atos, Serco or the like. We need to educate society on disabilities and how lives are affected and more costly. I’ve looked at the changes to ESA and soon to be DLA/PIP and instead of making sure that the descriptors included things such as fluctuating conditions, mental health etc., you have narrowed the criteria to exclude genuinely disabled, sick and vulnerable people who need and deserve our help. If you would have informed the public of how disabled people’s lives are affected by disabilities both visible and invisible instead of calling them scroungers and lazy you never would have gotten away with this evil, sick behaviour and treatment of our citizens!

  131. sue taylor says:

    when is this disgusting man and his government going to be challenge in the courts. They have broken the law. Dont they actually realise that they are on a timeline, they will never ever be voted into any government ever again.

  132. Kassy Fatooh says:

    Violence against the disabled is on the rise. It’s fueled by ignorance, and that ignorance is manufactured by media misrepresentations. Please do not be responsible for creating an atmosphere where it’s ok to abuse the disabled. Report facts. If you must editorialise, call for austerity measures that target wealthy corporations which fail to pay their taxes. Thank you.

  133. JJ says:

    Christopher John Ford Could you please add my name. Chris Ford, Disability Issues Spokesperson, Alliance Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand…I can’t see a link where I can sign so please add my name as a measure of international solidarity!

  134. Annie Bishop says:

    Please add my name I chair the Northumberland and Deaf network and have paid over 3o years into the system until I got MS, I still work but if I don’t get PIP I won’t be able to

  135. Dianne Taylor says:

    Discrimination In all aspects by this government. Hitting the vulnerable is as low as a person/parties can get. Cowards,bullies and pompous individuals who do not know what it is like to suffer mental and physical difficulties on a daily business. Unforgivable to knowingly lie and subject suffering on people that cannot fight back. I took an overdose last year and constantly wish I were no longer part of this society. My medical assessor at Atos was a registered nurse, what does she know about mental illness as well as physical illness. I scored 0 points . May she the assessor/ government as well as DWP who agree to this treatment (by being part of this disgraceful treatment) remember this inhumane treatment they have willingly inflicted on the vulnerable, remember their actions when they find themselves in our position because ( What goes around almost always comes around)

  136. Kathy Jagger says:

    I would like you to add my name to this letter. I am a full time carer to my 20 year old son. Outwardly he looks like any other 20 yr old, however he has a severe and complex learning disability that leaves him extremely vulnerable. He needs someone with him at all times to keep him safe. I really fear for the road this country is going down – as someone earlier said a country is only as good as how it treats the people who have the least. Well our government don’t treat them very well.

  137. Cheryl Moncrieffe says:

    I have MS diagnosed 2003 and am disabled by it and I have a 14 year old son with not a rare but a UNIQUE genetic condition who is disabled by it! We have been getting DLA!

    My son will be one of the first to go onto PIP! so I will take his case as far as I can to prove you are wrong in what you are doing and making the most helpless and vulnerable pay for the mistakes of too many people who are only in this to make money for themselves!

    Shame on you! there is fraud but you and your friends have more of a hand in it than either my son or I will ever have!

  138. mrs sandra pritchard says:

    i am a fibromyalgia/M.E./CFS sufferer & i am fedup of being penalised by the goverment because my illnessess are invisable type illnessess that have no blood test to diagnose them. you cant see the illnessess but believe me, & millions suffer worse than an animal would be left to suffer. the added stress of worrying if our benefits are going to be taken away just makes our illnessess worse.
    what the goverment is doing to the sick/disabled people in this country is nothing short of inhumane.

  139. Carol Edgington says:

    Just because you have the power to do something doesn’t make it right. No compassion for others less fortunate than yourself is an ugly trait, as is telling lies about them. You have been inciting hatred of the sick and the disabled and you have the cheek to call yourself a christian. It’s time you and your evil government were seen for what they are a bunch of overpaid, overprivilaged rich kids with no morals, who rob the poor to give their rich friends a tax cut.

  140. Mrs TN Hughes says:

    Conwy.

    Invisible illness does not mean imaginary! I have chronic migraines, new daily persistent headache and fibromyalgia. The pain is very real. The stress that the DWP are currently causing me with regards to money that I NEED to survive is making my conditions so much worse. If my GP and specialists agree that I’m not fit for work (despite me desperately wanting to), what makes you think that a half hour assessment by someone I’ve never seen before or since knows more than they do?

  141. Sarah Wiles says:

    Please add my name to this letter. I have read enough callous comments from IDS this week and would like to state that I think he needs to apologise immediately for offending us with his comments regarding disabilities. He may be wise to read the Equality Act again (ex student nurse)

  142. Andrew Sharp says:

    I want to pledge my whole-hearted support for this letter and everyone effected by reform of DLA as an able-bodied – and therefore potentially disabled – person. Ian Duncan Smith’s ignorance and contempt represent only his moral inadequacies an in no way a fair and proper assessment of the people he seeks to portray. He should be obliged to resign from his post for which he is evidently neither emotionally nor intellectually equipped.

  143. Alan Gardner says:

    Ian Duncan Smith doesn’t give a damn about disabled people or the consequences of these so called reforms. The man is a proven liar and hypocrite who clearly holds not only the disabled and unemployed in contempt but the British public in general, relying as he does on rhetoric and downright deciet.

  144. Paul Stygal says:

    Please add my name to the signatories. Paul Stygal, Southend-on-Sea, UK.
    I can’t believe the depths this government will sink to. They are surpassing Thatcher’s evil administration!

  145. Ronnie Gordon says:

    Why am i not entitled to a little help after the many years i paid to the National insurance or was that just money which keeps these fat inconsiderate rats in Government…. Give me a shot at weeding out Parliment and i’ll save the country a fortune….

  146. Sue Casely says:

    Please add my signature.
    Mr IDS has absolutely no idea of the effect of disability and no idea of living in poverty. His remarks are crass and show a complete lack of compassion and insight.
    He is NOT fit-for-purpose, and he is the greatest threat to Health and Safety in the UK today.

  147. Doug Peters says:

    Having experienced already the awful, unfair and badly conceived Atos ESA assessment process I was immediately aware that it had been constructed to ignore debilitating health issues, ignore the reports and advice of patients’ medical practitioners and therapists, and had been engineered solely to reduce people’s financial support. With DLA next in line for the same process, it seems that the government is hell-bent on making life as difficult as possible for people who have long-term health problems. This in order to save money that it could save by doing other things – such as ensuring it collects every penny of the vast, deficit-busting amount of taxes owed to it by companies and individuals who avoid paying it. Perhaps ill people are an easier – or more preferred – target than those who can afford expensive accountants and lawyers.

  148. Elaine Tilby says:

    Please add my signature:-
    Elaine Tilby, severe rapid cycling mixed state bipolar disorder, also physically disabled – uses 2 crutches.

  149. benjamin swaine says:

    I’ve won the 1st appeal relating to my mental health, elated yes…..but cautious also..,the war continues..doesn’t it ?

  150. Gina Mayers says:

    I am the mother of a child with a rare skeletal dysplasia. It’s alright this government saying that they are not going to be making any changes to children’s DLA. However, once my son turns 16 he will be treated as an adult, and treated with the same contempt all disabled adults are being treated, as a result of the propaganda IDS and the press are shoving in the face of the public on a daily basis. This government have no compassion for those in our society, who have either been born with a disability, or who have had the misfortune of falling ill or becoming disabled. Those in power sitting in their ivory towers, sitting in the lap of luxury, being fortunate enough never to have to worry about putting a meal on the table or a roof over their children’s heads, who have nannies to bring up their children, have the cheek to lecture those of us who do not have the riches they were born into, make me sick. Having wealth does not make you a better person. In fact being born of working class stock makes me proud, for I have morals, and standards, and would never treat a fellow human being in the same manner as these pompous, idiots who think they know what’s best. THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO ALL OF US!! and all of you who believe that those in receipt of a benefit to help them survive, had better be very careful, because one day, and especially in the current climate created by this government, you might lose your job, or you may become ill, and have no choice but to swallow your pride and ask for help, and then only then, will you understand what it feels like to be treated like a second class citizen, just because they are not “perfect”.

  151. Julie Steadman says:

    Fibromyalgia is real and not just in our heads. Debilitating and devastating. The DWP refuse to recognise it fully despite their own guidelines.

  152. Denis Donovan says:

    This cruel Gvt should be chasing the people who are making billions and not punishing sick and disabled people.

  153. Miranda Jackson says:

    I want to sign as both a psychotherapist working with clients on DLA and as a long-term sufferer of M.E. myself which has often necessitated my claiming the now-obsolete Incpacity Benefit

  154. Katy Board says:

    Please add my name to this letter 🙂

    I am disabled and claim DLA, which was assigned to me indefinitely, due to my disabling , non-curable, and progressively worsening health conditions.

    I had to fill in a hugely detailed form, and go through an intensively thorough medical to receive this, and at no time was it just handed to me on a plate!

    With the new descriptors for PIP, it’s more than probable that I’ll be disallowed it, which means I will lose my only lifeline to the outside world, while freezing to death, as my DLA pays for my huge heating bills, and my internet access.

    I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t gamble. I stay stuck in between four walls, with the internet my only channel to the outside world, and I’m terrified as to what will happen to me when my DLA is stopped, as IDS seems to be aiming for!

    IDS needs to wake up to what his vitriol is doing to the most vulnerable in society!

  155. Robert Board says:

    I am a full-time Carer for my wife, and am really worried that she will be losing everything that helps her to survive if her DLA is taken away from her.

    This government is showing no care, no compassion, and seems to be wilfully driving the most vulnerable of society to the wall.

    Please wake up to what you are doing, before it takes any more lives!

  156. Linda Pugh says:

    I have a genetic condition, which will not get better, it’s getting worse, it’s not very well known and I have to battle to get any help I have, unless a miracle happens , which I have waited for, my conditions not going to change.The thought of going through repeated accessment , when I will have to battle again for there to an understanding of my condition and how it affects me fills me with dread.
    I can only see that instead of people being more able , these cuts will make people more disabled, which to me must be a human rights issue. It is morally wrong for the most vulnerable in society to have to take the brunt of the cuts, and the misinformation which has been recycled endlessly by the media , but also the government which at the least do nothing to put the record straight about benefit fraud , and at worse feeds into the beliefs.
    I think that because of the experience from those who have been through the atos accessment , the battle disabled people have had ,the appeals system etc , this whole issue needs to be looked at , if it was fair, and seen to be fair, then people would trust the system. I am frightened of having to go through it, because I fear I will have the same experience .I do not trust the system which seems to be stacked against you.
    The words used by IDS to describe disabled people show his lack of understanding of the reality of life for disabled people, I am saddened and distressed that he thinks this way.
    I would like to sign this petition, and I appreciate this opportunity to express how I feel

  157. Mandy Emmett says:

    I returned to work after illness on the permitted work scheme which was abolished so i was forced to increase my hours to obtain working tax credit. On 5/4/12 i had to take a second job as my working tax credit was stopped. Praying I can stay well enough to do both jobs and that those less fortunate than me get JUSTICE!

  158. jim ross says:

    I Am A brain tunor sufferer due to a genetic condition (vhl) and i want to sign this letter unless atos cure me too. fat chance

  159. Neil Campbell says:

    IDS? IBS more like? He is psycopathic genetic supremicist of the worst kind and deserves a very personal hell for his crimes unique to this century. He and his like are well aware of the effects on Disabled people and have engineered this situation to stir up more hatred across the spectrum of our society.
    If i had my way… i’ll cut out their eyes , shatter their kneecaps and cut out their toungues and then see how much support they need? Not for the violence but merely so they could have a taste of what life is like when people like him are set to exterminate you by inches.

  160. Josie Thomson says:

    What a society have become! No care for the disabled, the unwanted and the unborn! No value placed on human life at all.
    Please add my name to the list.

  161. Sioux Jordan says:

    I am appalled by all that IDS is doing. So many people living in fear and poverty. The rise in hate crime etc.

  162. Roderick Millard says:

    So the letter was submitted yesterday, but is conspicuous by its absence from the Torygraph’s web page (I couldn’t bring myself to part with money for the so-called “news”paper). If the torygraph won’t print it, go for wider circulation – I’m sure one of the broadsheets will run it

  163. Angela G Norfolk says:

    i have fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, borderline personality disorder, depression, i use crutches and wheel chair to get around, ive had my mobility componant taken away, i rely on my dla, im awaiting my tribunal date now, im in severe pain all day everyday and have been for eleven years, my health is getting worse and i hardly ever leave the house. I have to now use a catheter and rely on a carer who doesnt get paid a single penny cause they took my midrate care away, i now get low rate meaning no carers allowance, with out my carer i wouldnt eat or drink id end up dead or lay on the floor not being able to get up till by anychance someone came round. Why are us disabled being treated like scum, we didnt ask to get sick, sorry were not as perfect as you, i hope you never get sick and need dla to live cause guess what you wont get it youl be left on a heap to rot and die, nice isnt it, thought we had rights and deserve to be treated the same as everyone else. What right do you have to take them away ? You should be done for murder ive already known a ffew people take there lives because of you, poor innocent disabled people who cant face live because you’ve made us outcasts and left us for dead. Left us with no money to live, it not just us our family too, you can explain to my kids why they cant eat, why they cant have new clothes and toys to play with, or mayb a two year old needs to go out to work that’l be the next think, the worlds messed up enough without yet another idiot making it even worse. Thought goverment were ment to make the world a better place to live in what a joke !

  164. john ingamells says:

    Duncan smith has no compassion nor desire to empathise with those who will suffer from his decisions. A cold , heartless man in an Ideological attack on the State and Welfare. Shameful!

  165. Marc Rensing says:

    I find it shocking what happens to people with disabilities in our country. I wonder if the ministers actually know someone who has to live with a disability and receives support. If they did, then I wonder how they could be so cold-hearted and if they don’t, it’s about time for them to go out and meet people!

    Preston

  166. Christina Sosseh says:

    i would love to add my name to this letter. I work with adults who have learning disabilities. I find it repulsive what this unelected government are doing to the sick and disabled in our society. I have joined Milton Keynes against the cuts (COR) in opposition to what they are doing to our welfare state. We need to all stand together agains this type of bullying, as that is what they are doing

  167. Paul Davidson says:

    Paul Davidson. Gateshead. Individual Mental Health and Life Long Physical health Media Campaigner. Fighting against Stigma and discrimination. Also victim of a cover up of eight years of ”Hate Crime”. That a serving Government Minister wont investigate. I wonder Why?

    Not only does Ian Duncan smith cause deliberate harm to so many his Government allows other organisations to commit gross neglegences against vulnerable people

    After years of possitive campaigning against Stigma/Discrimination I and so many other campaigners have been grossly letdown by this Dysfunctional barbrack Government by it’s own gross neglegences and sinse yeturday for not assisting me to seek justice regards a cover up of shameful bad practices. that almost ended my life. yet soon it might end anyway due to pending ”Uneversal Credit Slaughter on a mass scale.

    I wont go quietly.

    Paul Davidson Gateshead.

  168. Darren Lynch says:

    As a father of three children with disabilities I completely abhor the ignorant, inflammatory and discriminatory comments of Iain Duncan Smith and would like to fully endorse this letter of objection by becoming a signatory.

    Darren Lynch
    Preston

  169. Ross Allan says:

    I’d like my name added too please .. I hope this is the correct way to be going about things.

    keep up the good work.

  170. joyce littlejohn says:

    BI think it is a disgrace how he treat the disabled,I have worked all my life also was a farmer’s wife ,so when I do have to go on Dla etc I am classed as a fraudester,which I am not, I have spoken to many people and they don’t know they ate entitled to it, so instead of classong us scrounging B he should be making sure that the ones that are entitled to have get it insted of blacking our names,he is ok in a posh house and more money that we could do with,

  171. Joe Baxter says:

    I am totally sickened by the filthy lies put about by Tory party heavyweights, and by the right wing press who turn a blind eye and repeat their sleaze.
    Any protest has my backing.

  172. Maggie Cox says:

    Ian Duncan Smith has no shame. God moves in mysterious ways and one day he will pay for his actions. That day can not come too soon.

  173. Michelle Mackenzie says:

    I know there are some people who do claim fraudulently, however the majority of us have ligitamate disabilities.

    Michelle Mackenzie, Dundee

  174. Yvonne Tyrrell says:

    Ian Duncan Smith should watch his hateful language. He is loathsome. He lies, twists the truth and is part of an overall corrupt and inept government. He stirs up hatred against disabled and sick people like no other minister before, and I suspect after his term in office.
    He is not fit for purpose

  175. Lynda Phillips says:

    Iain Duncan Smith should count his blessings that he’s not disabled. The man has no comprehension of the word ‘shame’. Unfortunately, I suffered an horrendous series of life changing illnesses/injuries two years ago. “Mr Smith, I’m a coma and severe brain damage (amongst numerous other physical and psychological conditions) survivor. I shudder to think what would have happened when I was in a coma on life support in Jan/Feb 2010 had the coalition been in power then because my prognosis was very bad to no hope for FIVE weeks. It’s expensive to keep a patient alive in Intensive Care. Would the doctors have withdrawn life support with such a bleak outlook? I made remarkable progress and exceeded the doctors wildest expectations. Would your government give me the same chance? All I know for sure Mr Smith is that Hades is waiting for you on the far bank of the river Styx. Make sure you have a gold coin to pay Charon, the ferryman”…

  176. Tim Gatty says:

    If the quality of a country is measured by how the disabled/ill and vulnerable are treated then the likes of IDS are seeking to push the UK backwards to a new barbaric and uncivilised age.

  177. A A F says:

    Please add my name to the list. I’ve had probably the worst 12 months of my life. Not only have I been ill, but, a letter I got today says I’m chronically ill. My mother broke her wrist last summer – she’s on DLA and scared what they’ll do – needless to say, she’s not happy.
    Also a very good friend of mine who has multiple conditions and uses a crutch to walk about and does a LOT for the community – she’ll lose out because she wants independance for herself and not to be a prisoner in her own home. She has carers in twice a day when she’s having a bad time… she’s not looking forward to the future, same as we all aren’t.
    It’s a very prejudicial view from IBS. He’s clearly wiped his hands of anyone who is sick or disabled. What has he got to fear from us? nothing! Same as Camoron… who should really know better. He’s left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a feeling of contempt towards the Conservative party.
    Our human rights are being eroded… this has to end, we are human, all of us. We need all the help we can get, not cuts.
    If the fraud rate is 0.5%, then the number fiddlers need to be held to account for their actions and the spin doctors behind it all need to come forward and have their heads held in shame and then the whole lot of them should be told where the door is.

  178. Natalie Jones says:

    The staggering fact of these cuts when compared to the amounts of tax multi-national organisations have been let off with by this and the previous governments leaves me flabbergasted. If Vodafone had paid their tax bill it would more than cover the cuts that we are being threatened with.

    People such as myself who have worked hard and paid into the system because it was fair and equal for all who needed it when times got hard and when people could not work any more for whatever reason should be asking for their tax and national insurance payments back. I certainly paid more tax during my working life than I am now getting in benefits, or will if I claim them for another 50 years!

    That people are jealous of such paltry sums is disgusting – when bills are due I live off £12 to feed myself and my pets for at least a week, to buy cleaning products, soap, washing powder, shampoo, toilet roll and sanitary protection. I would dearly love to compare my shopping bill each week with that of No’s 10 and 11 and their fridges full of Champagne.

    That the Tories further consider it acceptable to encourage disability hate in those that are jealous, by feeding the media stories of non-existent fraud, is utterly despicable and an abuse of their position.

    It was said before the election that we would be able to sack MP’s who did not perform or who lied about their election promises and abused their positions. I say sack Cameron for lying about ring fencing the vulnerable people and IDS for launching the most spiteful attack in my lifetime on those who need help most.

    They have let us all down. They are causing up to 32 deaths a week because of fear or extreme poverty. They are instilling terror into the very people they promised to protect – those they think can’t or won’t fight back. Well, unfortunately for them, when you’re in a corner the only way out is fighting. We may be weak, our voices small, but we will combine our energies and our voices to give an emphatic NO to being reduced to utter penury and having to be quite literally handicapped by the removal of benefits designed to help us work, to keep us mobile and to give us a fighting chance of having a quality of life equal to the able bodied and able minded.

    Shame on you both and on the others who were involved in this evil scheme!

  179. jo mackwell says:

    Have many different impairments and living in fear of not fitting the right boxes to get the support I need

  180. Natalie Jones says:

    Natalie Jones – East Sussex. ME and Fibromyalgia after viral meningitis put me in ITU, severe depression and extreme migraines following a fractured skull that destroyed my Pituitary Gland, spinal arthritis, compressed discs and deteriorating vertebrae in my neck, frayed Ulna nerve left arm, agoraphobia and social anxiety from pain and being unable to leave the house without support. Trained and worked as a Clinical Psychologist, paid tax and National Insurance hand over fist before becoming so crippled that I have now been reduced to using a wheelchair and taking handfuls of prescription medications to try and ease the agony I endure daily whilst having to fight my way through the nightmare maze of the benefits system for a tiny hand out to keep body and soul together. Very resentful after all the money I’ve paid into the UK system at how people are treated when they become ill or elderly.

  181. Ben Golightly, Swansea Youth Fight for Jobs says:

    I would like to see Iain Duncan Smith live on disability benefits or go to an Atos interview. He has no idea what life is like for ordinary people.

  182. Mags Kelly says:

    I have always worried about my children’s futures especially the two that have autism but
    Under this Govt I have felt true fear. Citizenship for my boys is dissapearing as the attitude to people with disabilities is being hardened and turned into hate by the way Ministers such as IDS speak about them in the media. Scroungers, a drain on society …. language that belongs back in the 1970’s, words of derision. This Govt has seen hate crime rise to frightening levels on its watch ………. Treating the weakest members of our society in this manner shows that they remain the nasty party creating misery and hardship for those least able to protect themselves . Their changes to benefits are not about care they are about saving money ………. DLA has the lowest rate of fraud 0.5 % so a cut of 20% is unjustifiable …… IDS should hang his head in shame

  183. Norma Anderson says:

    I can’t make any comment about this man without using really terrible language. I won’t do that – but please add my name to this letter.

  184. Chris McKeag says:

    This is happening on top of the dreadful merry go round system that is Employment Support Allowance and at the same time as the introduction of Self Directed Support, a shocking cost-cutting exercise dressed as greater individual choice. All possible thanks to the greatest turncoats who used their seats to ride the Conservatives into a government that should never have been. We didn’t vote for them and we didn’t vote for this.

  185. Marianne Scobie says:

    Disabled person, working full time. If I lost my DLA, I’d have to give up work.

    I work for a disabled peoples organisation and the majority of our members rely on their DLA for personal support, transport costs and basic living costs. We get daily calls from distressed people, terrified about what may happen to them, never mind those who contact us due to having ESA removed – the government have no understanding or compassion and are lying to justify their actions. Why should genuinely poor people pay for the mess a rich few got us into?!

  186. David Edwards says:

    1) does IDS honestly believe that he lies convincingly
    2) first the disabled but just wait until the fill implications of the implementation of Universal Credit become apparent 🙁

  187. Steve Tilston says:

    Slowly,but surely, this government is whittling away at many of the foundations of what we call a civilized society.

  188. Tracy Edwards says:

    If the government were being racist they wouldn’t be able to get away with telling lies & inciting hatred, so why are they allowed to attack the sick & disabled like they are? For every disability hate crime that occurs the government should be held responsible!! I’d say shame on this government but they don’t have any shame!!

  189. Daniel Linger says:

    Signed,
    Daniel Linger, Spalding, Lincs.

    These continued bare-faced lies for the pursuit of their antiquated policies must stop.

  190. Yvonne Parmenter says:

    Since this Government has come to power, they are gradually making life intolerable for disabled people.

  191. chris turner says:

    i am just another poor sod waiting for the nazi hammer to fall ,but maybe someone will read this and try to imagine how much stress the losing of benefits is when you are at the bottom of the money pile. unable to earn relying on partners to earn a wage and everyday hearing how dla is misused by scroungers .only the tories could sink so low as to create a hate campaign agains the most vunerable.

  192. Cheryl Risden says:

    Im a cronic fibromyalgia and ME sufferer and im also a carer to my husband who has young onset parkinsons.My condition has been made significantly worse by the fite to get DLA,it was eventually awarded at appeal tribunal 6 moths later.With 2 small children we have been struggling for so long to make ends meet,i can understand how people without support could take their own lives or just give up living when their money is taken from them.Im fortunate to have a loveveing family and close friends.

  193. Lorna Campbell says:

    Democracy has been swept aside so a Condemned government can impose its ideology aimed at destroying a safety net built by ordinary tax payers for those who need it. No one asks to be disabled. Whatever fraud IDS believes exists, he needs to stop generalizing, provide proof and deal with individuals instead of criminalizing all disabled people. It’s extraordinary that MPs can ignore the law, discard hard evidence that tells them the basis of their PIP policy is wrong and they still continue to spread propaganda aimed at demonizing and criminalizing innocent disabled people. The fight will .continue as one cannot expect logic, fairness, decency or acts of humanity from those who support morally bankrupt ideologies.
    Please add my name to signatures

  194. brian knowles says:

    i eagerly await my suicide pill from the new world order. this final solution hopefully will rid the world of us .as we are a waste of human life. kill me now. i want to die

  195. Bob Jones says:

    Jeremy Hardy was very funny about this issue on last weeks New Quiz. The Tories sent out IDS as the nice face of Tory cuts to placate us all, then he comes out with this nonsense. It is the eugenics brigade, as brian knowles says above, they’d rather we weren’t here.

  196. maggie west says:

    There are no words that I have not already written about this subject, often in enormous distress. I await the time when the crimes committed by politicians and the media will be accounted for in law.
    The days,weeks,months and years I have watched the two members of my family who are ill, be offended and distressed,insulted and slandered by men and women not worthy to hold a torch up to them.They will never have their courage and bravery in the face of adversity and suffering.They are not fit to wipe their boots and I will gladly attend these unprincipled individuals and organisation’s trials when their time comes and it will.
    I will eagerly await explanations to the public and their victims as to why they have accused millions throughout the UK of fraud with their sweeping generalisations and cowardly innuendo .
    Let’s demand and hear evidence in a court of law of how family members are now free of long term and life shortening illnesses.Documents to the effect that the illness that keeps the sick, ill and dying from enjoying life,holding a job down,fulfilling their potential and building a future has now left them.
    Those guilty and complicit in these crimes are shallow men and women who have no morals ,no qualms at bullying the weak in their race for power and wealth and will be held responsible .

  197. Lindsay Lee says:

    I am a carer for my husband and 3 of my 4 children who have a disability. I cannot work because of my caring role, as much as I am desperate to. We cannot get any practical help, and I am physically and mentally exhausted by the demands of my role.

    People like me save this government about £190 BILLION every year. Take away the little financial support that we do get now and the chances are I will end up having a breakdown, or worse. That will leave my husband institutionalised and children in care, probably traumatised by having to be torn away from us, and each other. What cost to the state then, IDS ? How are you going to find the money to pay for all these cuts? Perhaps you should think on that, while you sip at your fine wines over your gourmet dinners with your big business sponsors….

  198. Lynda Phillips says:

    Should have added that I was a journalist/photographer in my previous life; one of the first wave; vanguard of citizen journalists… I look back to 2002 when my writing proved me wrong; in that I knew I could do it but was scared to try… I tried and I won because no one can take that away from me…xxx

  199. Lynda Phillips says:

    Should have added that I was a journalist/photographer in my previous life; one of the first wave; vanguard of citizen journalists… I look back to 2002 when my writing proved me wrong; in that I knew I could do it but was scared to try… I tried and I won because no one can take that away from me…

  200. Lynda Phillips says:

    Should have added that I was a journalist/photographer in my previous life; one of the first wave; vanguard of citizen journalists… I look back to 2002 when my writing proved me wrong; in that I knew I could do it but was scared to try…

  201. Wanda Lozinska says:

    The DWP are wasting millions of pounds on assessing and re-assessing people with incurable and degenerative conditions. I wouldn’t be surprised if the bulk of the welfare budget wasn’t spent on administration with a much lower amount actually going to the people who desperately need this money to survive.

  202. sue mccafferty says:

    please add my name, long-term multiple chronic illnesses, (made increasingly worse by the punitive policies of this government)

  203. Diddy-D says:

    This demands JUSTICE. Iain Duncan Smith is a criminal, and in a future and better society, he must be placed under arrest and put on trial.

  204. Linda Taylor says:

    his comments about remploy employees sitting about all day drinking coffee are unforgiveable but theres one thing we definately dont do – and thats wondering how to fiddle our expenses!

  205. DAVID A SHAW says:

    They rejoiced at the uprisings in the Arab nations, these again for there own personal profit and gain despite the cost in lives. They rejoice in their posturing over Europe and their ‘Special’ relationship with the USA. They talk continually about’ Democracy’ everywhere in the world yet are taking the very thing away in the nation they supposedly ‘ govern’. All the while forgetting that they are creating the seeds of unrest and disharmony in their own nation. Yes they shall find out that their actions are in error and their policies are corrupt. And yes they will have nowhere to hide for even the islands where they keep their money will not be far enough away for those they have harmed to find them.

  206. paul barnard says:

    i wonder if we are all being duped by “the system” to start violent protests/riots etc? the best way i know of to incite someone to rage and violence is to frighten them and make them so uncomfortable that they feel like they have nothing left to lose, and then sacrifice their dignity in a moment of (forced) insanity.
    that would be a great way for the system (politicians, media, banks, corporations etc) to scapegoat the “criminals” and again divert attention from their massive but hidden crimes to a “riotous minority”etc.
    its a classic manipulative ploy – whisper abuse in someone’s ear until they get so angry they retaliate and make a public spectacle of themselves making the perpetrator look like the victim.
    i think we need to watch out for this – these old school criminals and endemically evil greedy bastards have been getting away with it for a very long time and they are experts at manipulation, spin and hiding the truth(lying).
    i believe that the truth will always win eventually, but there may be a very difficult and painful road to get there which we must prepare ourselves for. and get a bit clever about…

  207. P Rawsthorn says:

    Your treatment of people who have a disability the sick and the vulnerable is barbaric and there is NO excuse for what you are doing. You need to be held accountable in a court of law for the deaths that have occurred and will continue to occur. YOU have the blood of hundreds of thousands of people on your hands you are mass murderers nothing more, nothing less.

  208. zechariah richardson says:

    Not only will this impact on my transport but also my housing because i use part of my DlA award to top up the short fall in my rent because housing benefit now doesn’t pay all of my rent.

  209. kasbah says:

    Some ideas: Researching the law with a view to fundraising for court action could be one option. Constantly approaching the press with appealing stories of disabled people’s courage and providing correct stats re. other ways to save money for the government eg clamping down hard on tax avoidance .
    More highly visible peaceful public protests.

  210. Yvette Howell-Williams says:

    I use my DLA for a car, although I am unable to work, it enables me to have some quality of life. Take it away and I will become housebound, more suicidal than I am already and a bigger drain on the govenment as I will need carers to come in and help me!

  211. Neil McKenna says:

    Appalled at the demonisation of some of the most vulnerable in our society as a pretext to increase suffering by removing much needed benefits. For shame.

  212. MRS PAM TINSLEY MBE says:

    disabled and wife of disabled man. also before retirement i was working at remploy, and had the privilage to represent some wonderful people.

  213. Jaki Rundle says:

    PLease add my name. Fully support this letter and all the other work you do. IDS is a disgrace to the human race. I am praying that this abhorant government is forced stop this dreadful human rights abuse. They know what they are doing, they just don’t care.

  214. Cara Lannon says:

    This government is out of contact with its own records, research, and statistics creating an atmosphere of defamation against those who are on benefit, the use of the term fraud is also appalling, coming from politicians – what was that about not understanding the terms and conditions around ‘expenses’ ?? Oh please!! Uncaring, barbaric smokescreen for a host of ‘undemocratic’ policies. The people of Iceland made a stand – it really is time we do too.

  215. michelle crowley says:

    disabled being resulting from rtc not my fault either…and currently appealing DLA .after getting for the last 8 years!

  216. Joanne shaw says:

    Please add my name. Trying to bring up 2 children on my own after the tragic death of my first daughter, a sufferer of the vile term invisible illness.

  217. Pamela Wilkinson says:

    The bigger picture for the governments persecution of the sick and disabled started with the name change from the Dept of Health and Social Security to Dept of Work and Pensions. The sick and disabled are surplus to requirement. They talk of everyone being able to work and yet there are no jobs for the able bodied unemployed so the disabled have no chance at all. Those who cannot work are being abandoned by the cruel acts of a ruthless dictatorship. The sooner this government are held accountable for crimes against humanity, the better.

    1. peter lee says:

      abandoned by the cruel acts of a ruthless dictatorship just about sums it up.
      peter lee
      wirral

  218. Humanity Forever says:

    Let there be Constitutional Protection for the Welfare Benefits of the Poor and
    Vulnerable , the End of Tabloid Demonisation and the Redistribution of Wealth
    fron Rich to Poor together with a Decent and Caring Government in Office

  219. Iloa Bell says:

    I am one of those ‘festering people’ who has fully paid up in the system and unfortunately got overtaken by a genetic condition, otherwise would still be paying in the system. I now support a number of nhs and third sector projects as a volunteer and my mobility component allows me to do this by enabling me to keep a car as I can not use public transport. If, Mr. Smith was to add up all the volunary work done by people like me, he would realise the value for money recieved by the country from disabled people.

  220. Rachel Deakin says:

    ME sufferer since childhood. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis is a chronic long term neuro-immune illness that affects multiple bodily systems and has no cure.

  221. j koshy says:

    London. This government needs to stop vilifying those less fortunate members of society and start trying to promote a solution.

  222. PETE DIXON says:

    I am ashamed that such attitudes as Mr Duncan Smith holds exist in one holding such responsibilities in our society. I shan’t waste time on insulting the man but I will say I find it disgraceful that treating anyone in such a manner is deemed acceptable and is not challenged by professional journalists!

  223. Dave Matthews says:

    So in opposition, Mr. & Mrs. Cameron, a couple with enormous personal wealth, claimed DLA for their disabled child. Now that he’s Prime Minister he wants to cut DLA for disabled children to £26 a week. How utterly disgusting.

  224. june heaney says:

    I am a mother of a 22 year son with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus and severe learning difficulties. I myself worked for 25 years until becoming so ill i had to give up my job. i have fibromyaglia and suffer from severe depression, some days the only thing that keeps me tied to this earths realm is the fact of what would happen to my son if i was no longer here. my son was given DLA for life but this means nothing to Iain Duncan Smith who because of his insensitive and abusive comments has given people who know no better a platform to hurl abuse at the disabled. I hope Iain Duncan smith never becomes so ill that he is tared with the same brush or maybe he needs to see what live is like for us. i still have to wait to see if my son will get this new benefit but he has lost his incap benefit. I have been deemed fit to look for work my DLA and incap benefit have been stopped. for 16 years i looked after my son and became so ill i had to give up my job all due to me caring for him full time. I would have thought that David Cameron would have realized how difficult it was to look after a child with special needs 24/7 365 days a year. no matter how ill you are but i was stupid to think it was the same for his family. he could pay to have the breaks needed to allow them to look after their child. I have had a baby for 22 years and have loved and cared for him to the best of my ability, and i can tell you now with out a shadow of a doubt, that i hate this government and all it stands for. David Cameron should realize that it wasnt the money spent on these benefits that brought this country to its knees but the bankers. also maybe if they cut their budget spent on going to war with countries that america wants to invade, to steal their oil and in doing so murder our young men and women and disable thousands. they wouldnt have a problem paying to look after the sick and old. it seems that unless the government feels you are of value then you are worthless in their eyes how wrong can they be. this company that the government has allowed to decide if one is sick enough or not are not interested in people with mental health issues and i heard someone on the TV or in the papers say that fibromyaglia wasnt a real illness so that must mean there not real pains i feel, quick someone needs to tell my body that when i cant get out of bed. I hope that this is the straw that broke the camels back and destroys this government. Then and only then we can vote in people who live in the real world and know the struggles the people face instead of these toffee nosed individuals. What in gods name does a distant cousin of the queen know about the real world its about time the likes of IDS and DC where shown that we the people say NO MORE.

  225. june heaney says:

    Oh by the way we have just arrived home from the hospital were my son had surgery to remove two shunts due to them becoming infected. one was removed completely and the other one was externalised when and if the infection is cleared he will have to return to have a further shunt removed and a new one put in. this is a man who is supposed to look for work. in gods name tell me how.

  226. Regina Unikowska says:

    My brother suffers from multiple osteochondroma and was made redundant because of his medical condition. He has 6 operations on his legs which has unfortunately caused chronic nerve damage and has left him in chronic pain. He
    is on the strongest painkillers i.e. oxycodin but was deemed by an arrogant ATOS nurse as fit to work! After successfully appealing to a Tribunal (which costs a fortune) he has now lost his measly benefit (after working over 35 years and paying tax) as the DWP will only pay after 1 year.

    That moron Iain Duncan Smith and his flunkie Chris Grayling are breathtaking in their incompetence. These are 2 MPs who claim for anything that moves and yet
    harass and target the most vulnerable people in society. I’m sure the Nazis and
    Stalin would be v. proud ot them.

    Remember if you get sick or old you’re a burden! What a country!

  227. Theresa Williams says:

    I feel sick and completely paniced, I’m not stupid (maybe i am)but i don’t keep as upto date with current affairs and government cut backs as i obviously should. mainly i don’t keep up because i agree with you all that the way this government works stinks to put it mildly and i get very upset at the ignorance, stupidity and sheer bloodymindedness of these pompus wealthy never have a worry in there supperficial lives because they don’t live in the real world where people struggle with such predudice, negativity, ignorance and blatent disregaurd for the welfare of others. sometimes you’ll get some politition play at surviving on benifit for a tv show and they struggle abit but they manage then they ask what all the fuss is about but at the end of it they go back to their normal lives. we can’t do that.this is our lives and none of us chose to be ill or disabled. its an insult. I have fibromyalgia, a blood condition, among other health issues. i know that there are others way worse off than me but if i lost my DLA i don’t know how i’d survive. i have two young boys and i’m a single mum so they depend on me. i would if i could happily swap my constant pain, fatigue, confussion, depression, and work in one of the fields i have skills and qualifications. i don’t wish ill on anyone either but i wish that for just a day this arsehole could experiance not just the symptoms of the people he’s trying to force back to work but the stress and panic that i’m sure i’m not alone in feeling at the mere prospect of not being able to provide, and care for my family.
    see i am stupid cause like that is ever gonna happen. the likes of iain dunncan smith or david cameron are never going to understand the suffering they are causing because they don’t have the capacity too. i’d like to go on and tell this government how to make the cut backs they need to and just where but i don’t currently have the mental clarity and just typing this has caused chronic muscle spasums in my fingers and fore arms.

  228. Charles Boyce says:

    I can only concur whole heartedly with everything that June Heaney says about IDS, who is totally out of touch with the reality of life. I have SCA8, which is a form of ATAXIA but the results of my reassessment are (thank goodness) unknown as yet but I for once in my life am not optimistic about my chances.

    Thought, if IDS being a member of the coalition, does that stand for idiots?

  229. Christine Hathaway-Coley says:

    I had to give up a well paid teaching job to care for my sone with autism. My husband is now carer to both of us as I have been diagnosed with ME. David Cameron and the tories promised that the sick and vulnerable would be taken care of pre-election despite the economic situation. This was clearly a lie to get into power. You would do well to remember that people with disabilitiesand long term conditions have the right to vote… but the damage is done. We will NEVER forget.

  230. chrissy hall says:

    i am 42 years old i have agraphobia and cronic depression i have not left my house for three years i was sent an appointment for attos but obviously i could not attend they stopped all my benefits as agraphobia is not a good enough reason for not attending,
    i now live on my child tax credits £64 a week my fuel bill has just come in they want £136 to be paid immediatly or they will cut my electric i dont have enough money to feed my 16 year old daughter who is also my full time carer, my life line to the outside world is the internet and that will surley be cut off next month when i cant pay the bill.
    i have nothing to live for my daughter will be better off without me and nobody else will miss me, so i don’t want to fight any more but just so Ian Duncan Shit has know doubts, i am ending my life because you and your regime, have mad living with any form of dignity impossible, you win this should save you a few extra quid.

    1. Alison Murphy says:

      please dont. can you get help from your family to tide you over until hopefully the storm passes and these creeps are put out of office. surely the worst government we have ever had. i do not think even if hundreds of people cut their throats infront of 10 downing street on the news it would move these illuminati puppets to change one iota. i think the only thing which will work is to throw them out and install a proper government. we never even voted for these so what right do they have to do this to us.

  231. Jan Seed says:

    Oxfordshire ME Group for Action (OMEGA) would like to sign this letter on behalf of all the severely ill people with ME, who are too ill to do so. They deserve to have better treatment and not to suffer the distress and hardship caused by reductions in benefits and insults by politicians and newspapers.

  232. c.ewan says:

    what a world we live in,no wonder people are taking there lives.previous goverments made the rules for the sick to get benefits,now DC/IDS want to move the goal posts .Greed will be the demise of mankind?just about all MPs are corrupt.To many people on the planet now!!

  233. sue matthews says:

    My brother is disabled, and I have had to watch him being driven into total despair and suicidal thoughts by the draconian and unfair policies of this government. Will it ever end?

  234. Alison Murphy says:

    IDS should not get away with his blatent lies and propaganda to aid his nasty party in their deeds of anti robin hood, robbing the poor to give to the rich. it seems incomprehensible that this party can do what they are doing and get away with it in a civilised society. why cant we throw the nazis out before more people die and suffer horribly due to their inhuman treatment of the most vunerable.

    1. benjamin swaine says:

      That won’t happen until DC,Grayling,Clegg,IDS,…ATOS,A4e are voted out completely…,then they should get done for Cooperated Manslaughter for causing the deaths and homelessness of so many people..,many top solicitors would back such a campaign.

  235. benjamin says:

    I hope so too, but that won’t happen until the coalition are voted out and along with Atos/Unum/A4e plus IDS,Grayling,Cameron and those who directly and indirectly have caused the deaths of so many people…., A top solicitor would agree that cooperated/in-cooperated manslaughter has been committed here. Not to mention unnecessary homelessness….and on a national scale.

  236. Benjamin Swaine says:

    That won’t happen until DC,Grayling,Clegg,IDS,…ATOS,A4e are voted out completely…,then they should get done for Cooperated Manslaughter for causing the deaths and homelessness of so many people..,many top solicitors would back such a campaign.

    Alison Murphy
    hope more legal cases are brought against them for incitement to hate

  237. Benjamin Swaine says:

    That won’t happen until DC,Grayling,Clegg,IDS,…ATOS,A4e are voted out completely…,then they should get done for Cooperated Manslaughter for causing the deaths and homelessness of so many people..,many top solicitors would back such a campaign.

    Alison Murphy
    hope more legal cases are brought against them for incitement to hate

    WHY DO YOU BLACK T<KEEP COMING UP WITH ERROR !

  238. Dr A J Winser says:

    The problems of our society are largely due to inequality. The government wants to increase the levels of inequality in our society. They want to increase the problems. They ARE the problem.

  239. Camilla Grey says:

    This blatant discrimination of the sick and disabled is a sickening illustration of the ruthless savagery of our current government.

  240. sharon Root says:

    Please add my name, it must be nice to be born with a silver spoon up your arse and never have to worry about what the next day will bring!

  241. sharon Root says:

    Please add my name, it must be nice to be born with a silver spoon up your bum and never have to worry about what the next day will bring!

  242. Steve Givnan says:

    please add my name. I am a Personal Specialist advice worker in Sheffield. I am noticing a much higher level of suicidal ideation within clients on ESA/DLA since changes and cuts have been introduced.

  243. Sharon Root says:

    I am shocked frankly at the lack of humanity, within the Conservative party, I hope you buck the trend! although I very much doubt you will. You wont go to heaven you know!

  244. Sharon Root says:

    I am shocked frankly at the lack of humanity, within the Conservative party, I hope you buck the trend! although I very much doubt you will. You wont go to heaven you know!
    You do realise I hope that people who want to cheat the system will still do it, whilst you punish the genuine ones!
    Sharon Root, West Malling Kent

  245. Sharon Root says:

    One guess why the most devastating changes are happening after April 2013? Oh yes the removal of legal aid! You think you will claw more money back to line you and your buddies pockets with! No doubt Grayling is now in the MoJ so you can “FIX” the APPEALS! you sick bastards!
    add my name please
    EAST MALLING, KENT

  246. Sharon Root says:

    Ididnt mean to sign this 3 times i had so many problems trying to sign and it didnt appear to work but apparently it did!

  247. Jay Astarte says:

    The pressure felt by those who are disabled and unable to work adds to pre-existing conditions and ultimately costs everyone more.

  248. jeremy williams says:

    NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO BEG YOU TO LIVE
    I’m writing this to ask every mp how can they ignore the cruel effect funding uc is having on the poor and disabled people of the uk. Do you realise good but disabled and poor people are reduced to begging you not to take away their benefit and transfer it to a project intended for them, that isnt even ready yet. This article http://gu.com/p/2jyz9 clearly shows why people have had no option than take their own life than wake each day in pain from starving. This article projects that 500,000 people on ib will be found fit for work, not because medical cures have been found enabling them to work but because the medical was changed to find them fit. The disability was not changed and these poor people are still not able to find work. So no job and now no benefit left these people no way to even have a meal. as the cost of uc keeps rising more people are suffering because to fund uc another benefit is taken away. The fact that work should be more rewarding is true but because we have a good economy that pays more to workers. Not because people who cant work are punished for it. millions of people live in the uk that means millions of different types and requirements. The old system was designed so that ALL circumstances were covered and sic disabled people were properly protected from further suffering, they dont deserve anymore pain. So i ask you all to realise this uc is taking all the benefits poor disabled people need to survive and giving nothing back. the time for reviews and fancy arguments has long since gone the cruel truth is people are dying and begging you all the time to let them live. Please stop this cruel treatment and give my friends and family a reason to believe in good again. Please dont turn your back and ignore them no one should have to die over a idea.
    what hurts me the most is they call my unwell family member a scrounger over the tax i pay. when in truth i am proud and more than happy to get up each day and work hard to help anyone who not by choice cant. these are my friends and family they grudge helping. well give me my tax back and i’ll help them myself. they may turn their backs but i never have or ever will these are the people i love without them there is no future.
    Every day this continues to be ignored more people die because poverty kills the fact of it is only you all have the power to stop this. so we ask you once again to use that power to save peoples life because sir they deserve the right to life as every other human being in the uk working or not. if you believe these people should live you will stop the torture if you continue the message you will send to everyone is you believe because of disabilities they dont deserve the life they have been given. now is the time to show us what you believe and what you dont.
    from all those suffering

  249. joyce ivory says:

    so cruel this so call human beings, that run this country, they pick on the poor and disabled,my heart goes out to all those people have died, it is a crime against humanity,the real truth will come out one day, i have no words but just to say, they are the low life of our society, but dont forget people, we have to fight for all those that have died because all of those false inaccurate wca,may all of you keep your strength up justice will come

  250. Cllr Peter Lockhart says:

    The government promised to listen then didn’t, they didn’t even look at their own consultation, a consultation which was rigged and even a rigged consultation didn’t give them what they wanted. DLA is vital to people like me, I use it to get around my ward visiting my constituents, without it I wouldn’t be able to carry on.

  251. Ian Warner says:

    I’d like to sign

    Ian Warner
    Self Employed Writer and Publisher
    Aspergers Syndrome and Severe Mental Health Issues CAUSED by heartless money driven people.

    1. Jan Tchamani says:

      Rapid cycling bipolar and osteoarthritis, thrown out of my public service job 6 years ago – do you really think I want to be like this? I put all my energy into trying to lead a useful life, and would like some recognition of my efforts rather than stigma, prejudice and slander

  252. R. Robinson says:

    I cannot believe the inhumanity of IDS. I hope one day he has to face a disability, maybe he will understand what disabled people go through on a day to day basis. As for “festering” at home, he has no idea how a disabled person feels. I thought we were supposed to be living in a reasonable society? This totally disproves it! I hope justice prevails, what they are doing is killing people or making them homeless. As for calling disabled people “scroungers” that’s Hitlerism! Please let them be brought to justice for what they are doing to innocent people.

  253. Andrea Efstathiou says:

    Why is IDS treating us as thou we want to be disabled? I’d rather not be, why resent us this bit of help, without which most of us couldn’t survive. He seems to be a cold, heartless person, we ‘fester at home’? Indeed we might, making it so we can’t work, helps us how? The word ‘festering’ means he sees us as boils on society’s arse, ‘o wait there, no, hes looking in a mirror.

  254. Heather Downs says:

    no medication, no physiotherapy, no comfortable wheelchair, no accessible housing. now no money either? welcome to the big society

  255. Paul Short says:

    We are Human beings, we bleed, we die, we have a right to a life. The government spend millions when someone peeks at their text messages & scream human rights, They then set about to remove any rights or Dignity the disabled have left whilst they spend more of the tax-payers money on breakfast, than these poor folk have for food for the week. Does not the HUMAN RIGHTS law apply to England???? We the people pay you wage to do our bidding. Either do what the Majority wish or GO!!!!!!!

  256. Pierre Lapin says:

    Mr Duncan Smith, for a quiet man you seem to do an awful lot of shouting. You said long ago “Beware the quiet man”, we can now see what you meant. Your policies and spoutings are frequently, in fact usually, non-sensical. You mention “festering at home” and yet wish to remove people’s mobility. Can you explain why there is no conflict within these two statements?
    You have demonised the unemployed, now you are doing likewise to the disabled, AND making them unemployed, via loss of their vehicles.
    Divide and rule may work in your mind, but you will soon find that you will not ever rule again. You’re party has been consistent in only one way, lies.
    I do hope you enjoy becoming unemployed in 2+ years, you are an unelected tyrant that will be only remembered in history books as a vile, callous bigot that picked on the weakest sectors of society from an ivory tower.
    Such empathy with the people as yours was last seen in Marie Antionette’s reign. Remember what happened to her.
    We do. Your policies are killing 73 people a week, and they will be avenged.

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