Events

Message from the invisible: Scrap the Welfare Reform Bill

Saturday 28th January 2012
11:30am to 1:30pm

Assemble 11:30am at Holborn, London (see map)

Jointly organised by UK Uncut and Disabled People Against Cuts

On Saturday 28th January in central London, a brave group of disabled, sick and elderly people are going to engage in a daring and disruptive act of civil disobedience, and they’ve asked for our support. Meet at 11.30am at Holborn tube station with a charged Oyster card, ready to travel to a secret location.Britain isn’t perfect. But our welfare state offers something that everyone can be proud of. It’s a comforting thought that if tomorrow you lost your job, your home or even a limb, society would be there to help you through it.At least until now. The government’s Welfare Reform Bill is just weeks away from becoming law and is the biggest threat the welfare state has faced in its history.

The Bill will take vital lifelines from the most vulnerable people in society. Right now, 500,000 families stand to lose their homes. Others will become imprisoned in them. Half a million will lose their disability allowance, including disabled children. People with terminal illnesses will be forced into work, and 3.2 million will be put through cruel tests that are pushing some to take their own lives. Millions of people – pensioners, low waged workers, the disabled, sick and unemployed – will fall deeper into poverty.

The government’s excuse for all this? The deficit, of course. Yet it continues to turn a blind eye to the £25 billion in tax dodged by corporations and rich individuals every year, a sum greater than the projected savings of the entire Welfare Reform Bill. Vodafone’s brand new £2bn tax dodge alone could pay for all of the cuts to Disability Living Allowance, which affects 500,000 people.

Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and Co. are choosing to inflict suffering on sick and disabled people rather than tackle rich tax dodgers, because they think the poor and vulnerable are invisible – that they won’t or can’t make a fuss – and the rest of us don’t care.

On Saturday 28th January, let’s show them that they’re wrong. A brave group of disabled, sick and elderly people are going to engage in a hugely daring and disruptive act of civil disobedience, and they’ve asked for our support.

***Accessibility information for Saturday’s action on the Welfare Reform Bill***

The protest will involve being outside for at least an hour and being able to travel either by bus, taxi (this can be funded), or on foot/wheeling a reasonable distance from Holborn Tube station.

If you want to come to this protest and would like more information, email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with basic access support needed: e.g. do you need anyone to help push your chair, do you need to be guided from the tube, do you need a ‘buddy’ to help.

There will be activists with British Sign Language, although they may not be available all of the time, so please let us know if you need any BSL support and we will try to provide this.

Please send your mobile number to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) in case we need to text you.

For anyone with access needs please email for further details to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)