Disabled activists gate-crash DWP event and send message to ministers: ‘Your consultation is a sham’

Disabled activists gate-crashed one of the government’s “sham” consultation events on its disability benefits green paper, and persuaded civil servants to let them put questions that ministers had not wanted to be asked.

The direct action, led by Manchester Disabled People Against Cuts, saw activists gather outside and occupy the foyer of the four-star Crowne Plaza hotel in Manchester city centre.

They refused to leave the hotel until they were allowed to address the handful of disabled people who were taking part in the consultation event.

Despite a police presence, there appear to have been no arrests.

Activists were angry that the consultation event, and others taking place around the country, are only seeking views on 10 of the 22 controversial proposals in the Pathways to Work green paper, including ducking questions on Labour’s plans to cut billions of pounds from spending on personal independence payment (PIP).

After an hour-long stand-off, the activists eventually persuaded Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) civil servants to allow one of them, Rick Burgess, to address the disabled people taking part in the consultation.

He asked those present to vote on whether they wanted to give their views on the whole of the green paper, and not just the questions selected by ministers.

When they voted strongly in favour of giving their views on all the questions in the green paper, about a dozen disabled activists filled up the rest of the tables and Manchester DPAC took over the event from DWP and posed all the questions the government had not wanted to be asked, with DWP staff taking notes of the contributions made in response.

This meant that those attending the consultation were asked what they thought of government plans to scrap the work capability assessment and create a single assessment to decide on eligibility for both personal independence payment (PIP) and the universal credit health element.

They were also asked about the government’s plans to freeze the value of the health element of universal credit until 2029-30, with new claimants seeing their weekly premium almost halved to £50 in 2026-27.

And they were asked about the green paper’s most controversial proposal: to cut spending on PIP by more than £4.5 billion by requiring all claimants to be awarded at least four points on at least one “activity” to qualify for the PIP daily living component.

To end the event, they asked those attending whether they approved of the green paper as a whole. All of them rejected it.

Burgess said: “Our position was this was a sham of a consultation, so all the disabled people here want to come in and we want to tell you what we think of the green paper, and not the questions you prepared.

“We didn’t budge, and we said we weren’t leaving.

“We told the senior civil servant that our message to the minister was to abandon the green paper.

“Our message to the public is to find out where the consultation events are, go along, and if they won’t let you in to talk about all the issues then try and shut it down, because they are an absolute sham.

“Unless they are letting all the disabled people in to talk about all of the problems the green paper is going to make worse, then it’s just like asking us to co-operate in our own abuse. 

“The consultation takes the form of: ‘We are going to do this terrible thing, how should we do this terrible thing, and how do we help the few people that might survive it?’

“We are not answering that, we are not doing that.

“I hope the message is loud and clear that we do not accept this consultation, we do not accept the green paper, and that disabled people should demand the other consultations are open to everybody who wants to go, and they get to talk about every part of the green paper they want to talk about.”

Burgess said the government’s restricted version of a consultation was “an anti-democratic trick by ministers and we are just not going to accept it.

“What they are attempting to do is bypass genuine democracy.

“They don’t want the voices of disabled people who disagree with them, which as far as we can tell is all disabled people.”

Another disabled activist who took part, Luke Beesley, said: “The message from Manchester DPAC is that anyone can do this. 

“You don’t need loads of experience, you don’t need hundreds of people behind you, just disabled people showing up, being gobby and being assertive; that can get you in the room.

“Now it’s happened once, it can happen whenever.”

Dennis Queen, another disabled activist, said they “took control back”.

“We need to show the government and the DWP that we are not going to put up with this and we are not just going to sit there and tell them which knife it’s OK to cut us with and how deep. 

“We’re not going to do that.”

Asked if DWP welcomed the action by Manchester DPAC and if it would now extend its other consultation events so those attending would be asked about all the issues in the green paper, a DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “We’re determined to fix the fundamentally broken system we inherited, and encourage sick and disabled people to have their voices heard through our consultation to help build a system that works better for all.

“As part of our Plan for Change, we’re creating a sustainable welfare system that will always be there to protect those who need it most and genuinely supports sick and disabled people into work – backed by our £1 billion employment support offer.”

Credit for this article goes to John Pring with the Disability News Service