The Hostile Handmaid 🧡

policy, campaigns, & coproduction | #VAWG, disability, & migration | #ADHD #ActuallyAutistic #cPTSD dyspraxic migrant #survivor | 🌈🌱✡️✍🏼 #disabled #ScrapNRPF

[The Hostile Handmaid 🧡 @HostileHandmaid]

This #InternationalMigrantsDay please remember the migrant survivors of #DomesticAbuse who are unable to access refuge & vital support due to the #HostileEnvironment & #NRPF rule & are forced to stay w/abusive partners for fear of detention/deportation.
https://t.co/LzkXeADwuQ

[Apsana Begum MP @ApsanaBegumMP]

The Bill that MPs are voting on if passed will mean that:

750,000 low-paid sick & disabled new claimants will lose their Universal Credit health payments — a loss of £3,000 on average.

This is still £2bn of cuts!

I will still be voting against the Disability Benefit Cuts Bill.

[Z2K (Zacchaeus 2000 Trust) @Z2K_trust]

It’s very welcome that the government will remove the PIP cuts from the UC & PIP Bill.

But this bill will still significantly cut support for seriously ill and disabled people on universal credit.

The government must now scrap the whole bill and go back to the drawing board.

[Nadia Whittome MP @NadiaWhittomeMP]

This is a complete mess. The government is promising new changes, new concessions, 90 minutes before MPs vote.

None of this is written down. The Bill we are voting on tonight is unamended.

This is an unacceptable way of making laws. Just pull the Bill.

[Inclusion London @InclusionLondon]

Chaotic, rushed-through concessions drawn up on the back of a napkin are no way to make policy that will affect millions of people. MPs must vote NO on benefit cuts, and work with Disabled people to coproduce reforms to welfare that help Disabled people instead of punishing us.

[Cat Eccles MP @catecclesstour]

Minister Timms intervened mid debate to announce he's pulling Clause 5 (PIP clause) from the Bill at Committee. So why are we still debating and voting?
This isn't how we make legislation. Pull the Bill.

[💙Rachael Maskell MP @RachaelMaskell]

Tonight MPs have tabled a reasoned amendment on behalf of disabled people who have yet to have agency in this process. It is time their voices were heard. It is backed by 138 organisations @PippaCrerar @guardian

[Dr Marie Tidball MP @MarieTidball]

There has been no public consultation with disabled people about the proposals on PIP.

This is not just about process, it makes disabled people worse off.

I've just asked what the Work and Pensions Secretary will do to ensure her department regains the trust of disabled people

[Tom Pollard @PollardTom]

The updated poverty impact assessment for the disability benefits cuts once again offsets the impact of not proceeding with the previous government's proposed plans

The impact of actual changes happening in the real world is likely to be closer to 250k people pushed into poverty

[💙Rachael Maskell MP @RachaelMaskell]

"These cuts are gendered and dangerous, and blow a hole through the government's VAWG work too. Surely this evidence will cause government to realise that they have overreached and must withdraw this bill." My quote to the @Independent - full story in comments 👇 #York

[Apsana Begum MP @ApsanaBegumMP]

The Disability Cuts Bill undermines the Government’s own commitment to halve violence against women & girls.

@WomensBudgetGrp, @RefugeCharity and @sisofrida are calling on the Government to protect disabled people, who are twice as likely to suffer abuse. https://t.co/0UA5M11qk6

[Nadia Whittome MP @NadiaWhittomeMP]

A plea to the media: please platform disabled people's organisations like @DisRightsUK.

The most important story is not the drama in Westminster but about disabled people's futures.

Disabled people's representatives must be heard - they're saying the concessions aren't enough.

[Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana]

I voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap — and had the Labour whip removed.

I voted against cuts to winter fuel payments.

And I’ll vote against any attack on disability benefits.

Austerity 2.0 is a political choice — and I will always oppose it.

[Vicky Foxcroft 💙 @vickyfoxcroft]

(1/2) With a heavy heart, I have written to the Prime Minister to tender my resignation as a whip.

Whilst I will continue to support the government in delivering the change the country so desperately needs, I cannot vote in favour of the proposed reforms to disability benefits.

[Joseph Rowntree Foundation @jrf_uk]

Our analysis showed up to 400,000 people would be pushed into poverty by the Government's proposed disability benefits cuts.

This was put to @Keir_Starmer by Debbie Abrahams MP at today's Liaison Committee.

He said the cuts would 'change behaviour'.

Watch below 🔽 1/2

[Joseph Rowntree Foundation @jrf_uk]

At the Budget, we called on the Government to unfreeze LHA so that it was tied to local rents. This didn't happen.

The result? Just 2.5% of private rentals in England are affordable for people receiving housing benefit.

Read more in this report from @healthequals @crisis_uk👇

[Joseph Rowntree Foundation @jrf_uk]

Breaking news - government sleight of hand over poverty figures.

Actual increase in poverty from their cuts to health related benefits is closer to 400,000 📢

[Pippa Crerar @PippaCrerar]

BREAKING: Government’s own impact assessment on welfare cuts finds they would drive 250,000 more people, including 50,000 children, into poverty

[Trussell @TrussellUK]

🚨BREAKING: Almost 1 in 5 people claiming Universal Credit and disability benefits have used a food bank in the last month.

Hunger and hardship are already at record levels, and social security cuts risk pushing even more people to food banks.

[Frances Ryan @DrFrancesRyan]

Labour’s reported disability benefit cuts are not just about budgeting but a belief: paid work is a virtue (and people who don’t perform it deserve a worse life than everyone else).

My col. in tomorrow’s paper. https://t.co/qu9XriKVAB

[Apsana Begum MP @ApsanaBegumMP]

There’s evidence about serious harms caused to disabled people put through the DWP’s dehumanising assessments & sanctions —with reports of deaths directly related to the social security regime.

Cutting their benefits will have disastrous consequences. Tax the super-rich instead.