Spartacus report gains public support

Jan. 16, 2012 - PRLog -- Government welfare reforms, which will deprive disabled people of independent living, are losing public trust, a body of research and its subsequent non-partisan movement has shown, ahead of tomorrow’s DLA debate in the House of Lords.

Self-funded and carried out entirely by sick and disabled people, the Responsible Reform report analysed over 500 responses made to the government consultation via Freedom of Information requests. Even London Mayor Boris Johnson’s dissident voice was among them.

Otherwise known as the Spartacus Report, the research has attracted significant media attention over the past few weeks and has caused a storm on Twitter and other social networking sites.

Three million tweets for the Spartacus Report were sent on the first day of the report’s launch alone and the research has been backed by the likes of Stephen Fry, John Prescott, Tim Minchin and Caroline Lucas as well as leading disability charities such as Scope, Mind, RNIB, Action for ME, Leonard Cheshire and Sense.

Last week, the report’s campaign to reject the welfare bill, including time-limiting ESA, saw a hat trick of government defeats.  These defeats were not politically motivated, but as the result of months of evidence submitted to crossbenchers from charities, from the public and from Lord Freud.

This week is the start of a new campaign: the proposed government changes to the DLA benefit will see hundreds of thousands of disabled people who are already living hand to mouth, denied the one benefit that enables them to lead an independent life, and in the majority of cases, allows them to work.

Kaliya Franklin, disability activist said: “Government proposals will replace DLA with Personal Independence Payments and reduce eligibility for the new benefit by an overall minimum of 20 per cent. This means that despite the low fraud rate, hundreds of thousands of people will no longer be eligible for the benefit they so desperately need.”

What the figures tell us

•   Less than 0.5 per cent of DLA claims are fraudulent, yet DLA benefits are to be cut by 20% at least
•   74% of the 500 responses did not agree with the DLA changes  
•   Just 7% agreed with the proposals
•   650,000 people who currently receive the lower rate for DLA will no longer be eligible under PIP.

Kaliya added: “Tomorrow (Tuesday 17th January) the House of Lords will vote on the welfare reform changes to DLA. We call on the Lords to attend this important debate and vote for a pause to PIP.”

Ends