Disabled activists are hoping to use a parliamentary meeting next month to persuade more MPs that action must be taken to prevent further deaths caused by the government’s much-criticised fitness for work test.
The First Do No Harm lobby on 13 February aims to expose the continued harm caused to disabled people by government social security reforms.
It will focus on the repeated failure of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that the “further medical evidence” needed to demonstrate a disabled person’s eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits is always collected, particularly for claimants with mental health conditions.
Although the lobby has been organised by Labour’s Treasury and work and pensions teams, through shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood, activists hope that MPs from all parties will attend.
Disabled people or allies who want their MP to attend the lobby should write to their MP – for example, by using the website WriteToThem – to inform them they wish to seek an appointment on the day of the lobby.