BACK EDM 295

ASK MPs TO TAKE A STAND AGAINST ATOS' HARMFUL 'FITNESS TO WORK' TESTS!

Update 2 (18/07/12): More good news: EDM 295 is up by another 5 signatures today, including the DUP's Ian Paisley Jr. That puts us in touching distance of making it the 8th Most Supported EDM of the year (4 signatures needed); and not at all far from 7th place (7 signatures needed)! This has been a great effort so far, so well done to everyone who's got involved. :-)

Meanwhile, the Conservative email list has finally been updated, so what better excuse to write and find out if any Tory MPs are willing to admit the obvious flaws in ATOS's 'fitness to work' tests? At the very least, I hope we won't let them keep getting away with *not* hearing our frustrations and worries on this issue...

This campaign page has been set up to make it easier for disability campaigners and members of the public to email UK Members of Parliament in support of Early Day Motion 295 (on disability assessments).

- If you're unsure of what an Early Day Motion (EDM) is, or why you should support EDM 295, the first three sections will be helpful.

- The fourth section will give you a template email which you can choose to edit, as well as some useful links which will help give you plenty of ideas if you'd prefer to write your own message.

- Finally, you can find all MPs' email addresses by political party posted at the bottom of this page. These are listed: (1) all together (so you can choose to email all MPs from a particular party with one click), or (2) individually (to help you find a specific MP, or in case you'd rather email a group of MPs with more personal messages).

(Note: Not all MPs are listed, as frontbenchers and shadow frontbenchers aren't allowed to sign EDMs!)

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in supporting ill and disabled people across the UK. If you have any questions or suggestions about this campaign, or the wider disability rights movement, feel free to get in touch with Jamie at epipsychidion86@googlemail.com.

What is an Early Day Motion (EDM)?

A very valid question. The following definition is taken from the UK Parliament website, athttp://www.parliament.uk/about/how/business/edms/:

"EDMs are used for reasons such as publicising the views of individual MPs, drawing attention to specific events or campaigns, and demonstrating the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view. Although there is very little prospect of EDMs being debated, many attract a great deal of public interest and frequently receive media coverage."

What is Early Day Motion 295?

EDM 295 has been submitted by the Labour Party MP John McDonnell. Its title is ‘ATOS’, a reference to the private company paid £100m per year by the UK government to administer the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). The WCA is the "inadequate" and "devastating" 30 minute tick-box testused to assess the ‘fitness for work’ of disability benefit claimants. EDM 295 raises some of the many problems ill and disabled people, campaigners and organizations have with the WCA:

"[T]his House deplores that thousands of sick and disabled constituents are experiencing immense hardship after being deprived of benefits following a work capability assessment carried out by Atos Healthcare under a 100 million a year contract; notes that 40 per cent of appeals are successful but people wait up to six months for them to be heard; deplores that last year 1,100 claimants died while under compulsory work-related activity for benefit and that a number of those found fit for work and left without income have committed or attempted suicide; condemns the International Paralympic Committee's promotion of Atos as its top sponsor and the sponsorship of the Olympics by Dow Chemical and other corporations responsible for causing death and disability; welcomes the actions taken by disabled people, carers, bereaved relatives and organisations to end this brutality and uphold entitlement to benefits; and applauds the British Medical Association call for the work capability assessment to end immediately and to be replaced with a system that does not cause harm to some of the most vulnerable people in society."

The EDM can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/295

Why should I support EDM 295?

It's true that EDMs have relatively little chance of being debated in the House of Commons. However, if enough of us email enough MPs about it we could make quite a difference to how this one is received:

(1) For a start, we have a chance to add real weight to this EDM. At the moment, it has 70 signatures. Parliament publishes a list of the Most Supported EDMs, which can be found here:http://www.parliament.uk/edm/

As it stands, EDM 295 can make it into this 'top tier' if we get another 3 MPs to sign. Moreover, if we get another 35 signatures, we can make it as high as third place!

There are 114 non-coalition MPs who remain eligible to sign, plus another 36 Lib Dems. Third place seems like a challenging, but definitely manageable, aim for us all!

(2) Being sent lots of messages on this one subject will keep MPs aware of the strength of public feeling towards the Work Capability Assessment. It'll make it harder for them to either ignore or forget about the difficulties currently faced by ill and disabled people across the UK.

(3) The higher up the 'most supported' list we get EDM 295, the stronger the message we will send to the government about the huge concerns surrounding the WCA. It will also be a further step forward in the ongoing efforts to build a solid 'base' of support for sickness and disability issues in the House of Commons, which may help influence future policymaking after the next election.

(4) Finally, it will send out a positive sign to people who have suffered under the WCA if we can persuade MPs to put their name to a motion which condemns its failings. For such a long time ill and disabled people had hardly any voice in mainstream politics - this would be another small but significant victory in showing that those days have been firmly left in the past.

What should I say?

If you've made it this far and still want to help - great! The email lists at the bottom of this page will give you the chance to either email individual MPs of your choice, or every MP from a particular party:

- Emailing a smaller number of MPs individually with messages addressed to them (e.g. Dear Mr. Smith…) shows a more personal touch, and may make the MPs look more closely at your message. This is an especially good idea if your own MP is on the list, as they are allowed to reply to you personally (as long as you include your address in your email). This will mean they are most likely to look at your concerns and try to do something about them.

- However, there’s also something satisfying about being able to email all MPs from a political party with just one click! If you’d prefer to do that, just copy the huge list of email addresses at the start of each party list and put them into the ‘To’ field of your message before sending it.

As for what you write: that’s up to you! It could be a few sentences asking the MPs to sign, or a longer explanation of why you think the Work Capability Assessment is damaging and needs to be changed.

If you're having trouble thinking of what to say, there's a template message below, which you can change and adapt as you like.

There are also a few helpful websites listed beneath the template, which list many of the key problems with the WCA. They may help you work out which points you'd most like to make in your email.

Remember: your message doesn't have to be as long as the one below. Just make it clear why you're writing, and that you'd like the MP(s) to consider signing EDM 295 and you should be fine!

Template

"Dear x,

I'm writing to ask you to consider signing a recent Early Day Motion (295), on behalf of your ill and disabled constituents. The motion notes the many flaws associated with the Work Capability Assessment for disability benefits. Its full text can be found here:

http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/295

The Work Capability Assessment is an entirely inappropriate means of assessing sickness and disability benefits, frequently leading to unjust outcomes for some of the most vulnerable people in the UK. Around 40% of negative decisions are eventually repealed, rising to 70% for those with representation (by, for example, a Citizens Advice Bureau). These figures represent hundreds of thousands of disabled people denied vital benefits for months while waiting for their appeal to be heard. It's difficult to emphasise just how profound and enduring a source of fear and confusion the WCA is for huge numbers of disabled people, both in your constituency and across the United Kingdom.

I hope you will feel able to support Early Day Motion 295. I can assure you that the sight of MPs willing to stand up and acknowledge the WCA's flaws means a great deal to many disabled and ill people.

Thank you very much for reading this message, whatever your final decision.

Yours sincerely…"

Websites

1) Citizens Advice Bureau press release on the WCA: "Not Working" (very clear!):

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/press_20100323

2) Jon Cruddas MP condemns the "not fit for purpose" WCA:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/01/labour-mental-illness-coalition-cuts

3) "British Medical Association Demands End to WCA":

http://bma.org.uk/news-views-analysis/news/2012/june/scrap-work-capability-assessment-doctors-demand

Feedback

After your emails have been sent, you’ll likely get a load of automated messages back. That’s standard – just ignore them!

However, after a short while you may also receive messages from MPs’ assistants asking you for your address, as "MPs can only talk to their own constituents".

Don’t be put off – if this happens, just write back, telling them you aren’t a constituent, but asking themif they could just bring EDM 295 to their MP’s attention on your behalf. Most assistants will be more than happy to make their MP aware of a particular issue if asked politely.

EMAIL ADDRESSES

Finally, we get to the MPs' email addresses! These are listed by political party in two sections.

The first section for each party is a long list of email addresses you can copy and paste into the 'To' field of your message, to email all a party's MPs together.

Beneath that is a list of individual MPs by name, with their constituency and email address, in case you only want to email particular MPs. Again, I highly recommend you email your own MP personally, telling them your address if you can so that they can write back.

Good luck with your efforts, and thank you so much for your support!