At the DPAC protest outside parliament on 8 July to mark the third reading of the Universal Credit Bill, a large number of disabled activists and organisations turned out. We were joined by Jeremy Corbyn who congratulated DPAC and the disability movement for changing the nature of the debate in Britain around disability away from financial aspects to the question of the quality of life for disabled people. He pointed out that many people would have to have given up work for those who lost PIP. He had told Liz Kendall last week to withdraw the bill completely and to work with disability organisations in drawing up plans from scratch for changing the welfare system.

Clare from Winvisible gave a list of disabled people impact who had died because of losing their benefits. She specifically referred to disabled migrants especially the case of an African woman with HIV and her daughter who starved to death because they were refused benefits. She called for the dropping of no recourse to public funds

A powerful speaker was disabled activist Jess who used to run a disability theatre company in Peckham and had to abandon it when she lost her Access to Work benefit. Jess has Tourette’s and featured last week on Channel 4 News which included footage of her having a seizure and needing someone to be with her so she wouldn’t harm herself. These are the human stories behind the disability cuts. As Jess said in her speech these cuts to universal credit will not save any money but will lead to a loss of lives

As the protest gathered outside Parliament, inside MPs were voting on the remaining part of the bill dealing with disability cuts which will lead to many young disabled people being removed from universal credit payments. As one wheelchair user said at the protest: “You may not be disabled today but you could be tomorrow”

NB Featured image: Jeremy Corbyn MP with back to camera addressing a group of protestors with placards. several in wheelchairs