The War on Welfare (WoW) petition gathered over 104,000 signatures demanding a Cumulative Impact Assessment of austerity on sick and disabled people and their families. But the government has responded with a flat refusal to do so. This constitutes a(nother) massive ‘F*ck you’ to sick and disabled people (and their families) across Britain, from a government who refuse to find out the true cost of their cuts.
The excellent blogger Sue Jones lays out the urgency of the impact assessment:
The number of households with a disabled family member living in “absolute poverty” increased by 10% between 2013 and 14. Absolute poverty isn’t the same as relative deprivation – our usual measure of poverty – absolute poverty means that people can’t meet their basic needs, such as access to food, fuel or shelter.
Such a rise should set alarm bells ringing.
It might seem strange to those fresh to this issue that a government would even consider going ahead with radical cuts to welfare and services which affect the most vulnerable without a full impact assessment either before or after the fact. Just as we would all look to our left and right horizons before crossing a road, or make sure the gas hob is off after we’ve finished cooking a meal – we would expect the same simple prudence from our government. But sadly, such prudence is missing from the current front bench and Department of Work and Pensions chief, Iain Duncan Smith.
Derby People's Assembly 